This week we stepped our game up and finally invested in a server at work. We went with a Mac Mini running OSX Server and so far it’s been pretty awesome. It’s a big leap forward in comparison to where we were (shared files). No more file permission issues, new shared calendars and contacts, internal iMessaging, and an online wiki are the features we’re using heavily.

I’m most excited about the internal wiki resource personally. It’s great to finally be able to create a dynamic “how-to” guide that everyone can benefit from. The search, category, and tagging system is exactly what we needed and it will be exciting to watch the resource guide grow.

We originally delayed getting a server because we had assumed that we needed to get a Mac Pro to power OSX Server efficiently. However, after a little research we found that, that would have been very excessive. Turns out the Mac Mini has enough braun to create a very efficient server environment for a small business; the best part is that it was half the price.

We hired a specialist from the Apple Consultants network, Greg Ashworth of iDigital LLC. Greg was great and it was definitely worth it to work with a specialist for the initial setup. The install and setup went rather quickly, only taking about 3/4 of a day. There weren’t really any hangups or troubles and so far we’ve had all good experiences with OSX Server right out of the gate.

Here’s to a new beginning.