Best IT-infrastructure For a Small Company?

DiniZuli writes "I've been employed by a small NGO to remake their entire IT-infrastructure from scratch. It's a small company with 20 employees. I would like to ask the /.-crowd what worked out best for you and why? I came up with a small list: Are there any must have books on building the IT infrastructure? New desktops: should it be laptops (with dockingstations), regular desktop machines or thin clients? A special brand? Servers: We need a server for authentication and user management. We also need an internal media server (we have thousands of big image and video files, and the archive grows bigger every year). Finally we would like to have our web server in house. Which hardware is good? Which setup, software and OS'es have worked the best for you? Since we are remaking everything, this list is not exhaustive, so feel free to comment on anything important not on the list."

Comments

Don't buy any servers. Use the cloud.

[cryfreedomlove]

Media server? How about S3. Web server? How about EC2. Seriously, why spend time and $ on procuring, powering, cooling, backing up, and upgrading all that gear? Give everyone a laptop and a gmail account. Put the rest in a public cloud.

I don't like laptops as primary machines

[Donniedarkness]

I tend to shy away from using laptops (even with docking stations and such) for primary machines. I'd go with regular desktops. The costs of upkeep and such will be more predictable that way. I don't prefer any one brand over another, but I typically tell my clients to stay away from Dells (because of all the issues with capacitors on motherboards over the last several years). My clients tend to go local, even if it costs a tad more, and those that do tend to be happier with their purchases.

Re:Did anyone else read this thread as..

[grcumb]

Do my job for me?

"I've been hired by a small NGO. They have about 20 employees. I do not yet know enough about what I have been hired to do, so I am turning to Slashdot. Please, do my job for me and help me look good."

No. but that's only because I'm not afraid of other people's opinions. I actually like trying to see things from others' point of view. It makes me better at my job.