That is the reason behind the birth of what is a familiar setup today – the LAN and WAN – networks of computers that are interconnected. This ensures that data within the group is secure, better managed, have optimum space usage and ease of sharing. One need not go to an overseas office physically to look at the computer there, the interconnected network allows access to all those who belong to that network.

But how are these networks managed? There would be chaos if hundreds of computers had to be connected physically through wires, and the cables would not cross over oceans anyway. That is why we have servers – systems whose job is to manage a network of computers. Servers may be doing all types of activities, or they may be dedicated to only one kind of job. A file server, for example, stores files containing data belonging to a particular network. Microsoft’s Exchange Server is dedicated, for example, to handling only business mails and other means of business communication such as official IM accounts. Multiprocessor servers handle several tasks at the same time, keeping the internet connected, storing data, managing mailboxes etc. These are complicated programmes rather than one computer, and have much the same function on a massive scale as our humble OS on any home pc.

Servers were created to manage data better and make it faster and safer for all users. All of us deal with servers in some format or the other. Some of the most common utilities provided by servers are:

The list given above is only the tip of an iceberg. Servers are of many kinds, and new ones are being created or customised to meet client demands everyday. Some of the types of servers that are very familiar to us are listed below:

Hard disks are household goods now, and the definition of disks inside servers has been affected by this changed scenario. A 60GB disk can also act as a server now. But the most usual format is the RAID – an array of disks – that is discussed below.

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and is self-explanatory. It is literally a ‘stack’ of two or more disks with a specialised disk manager to run it. RAIDs are rated on a scale of 1 to 10 to measure efficiency and utility. Besides, there are also RAID 53 and RAID 0+1 that are very powerful arrays.

Data loss from servers can happen through natural disasters, virus and hacker attacks, logical failures, disk crashes, electrocution and human errors or mishandling.

RAID data loss can be attended to by only the best data recovery professionals. Any company that has experienced a RAID data loss (or is on the brink of one) must immediately contact an established data recovery company.