Network Servers and Drives (aka Private Cloud) are the nucleus of modern day work environments, performing a wide range of functions and providing substantial benefits for the average small business network.

Increased Productivity and Reduced Equipment Costs
When an office is "connected", so are people. More informed decisions can be made and everyone moves faster when information is immediately available. Being connected saves time when data is effortlessly shared. Shared resources are commonly utilized more often and efficiently.  Key files, data, and services can be accessed from any place on the network or Internet instead of only from one PC, and more users can be brought online without large additional hardware costs.

Virtualizing Network Servers
A virtual server is a virtualized instance of a physical server that acts like a dedicated server, but is created using virtualization software like VMWare ESXi. Many "Virtual Servers" can be created on the same physical network server.

This approach provides a lower total operational cost, more efficient utilization of physical server hardware and more efficient utilization of power. Perhaps even more importantly, this approach allows compartmentalization of network resources to increase resiliency in the face of ransomware and malware attacks, as well as providing a faster path for disaster recovery in the event of server system failures.

Overall, systems like VMware provide better disaster recovery, cost savings, greater resource utilization, scalability, security, and flexibility.

Reduced Dependence on Standalone Computers
The typical Network Server is built using much more robust hardware systems than the average standalone desktop computer, primarily to provide increased levels of system reliability and better performance. RAID (redundant) drive systems allow your data to be stored on multiple Hard Drives or Solid State Drives simultaneously, in real-time, so a single drive failure will not shut down your entire operation. Critical data is stored on the Network Server and/or Network Attached Storage drive (aka NAS) instead of a single desktop PC. The standalone desktop computer (or Client) becomes merely a terminal to access that information, so if one computer goes down it becomes no more than a minor inconvenience to have to use another PC on your network, or replace the machine having problems.