--- title: Server, NAS & Virtualisation Services India description: Honest hardware sizing, NAS and RAID supply, Proxmox/VMware/Hyper-V virtualisation, and 3-2-1 backups with a restore test you personally watch. source: https://samuelmarndi.com/services/servers-storage/ site: https://samuelmarndi.com author: Samuel Marndi contact: +91 82803 20550 · samuelmarandi6@gmail.com updated: 2026-08-22 --- # Servers, storage and backups that survive a bad day Specifying, supplying and configuring servers, NAS and RAID storage, virtualisation and backup regimes that are tested — because an untested backup is a rumour. ## Short answer **The right server is the one sized to your actual workload, not the one with the best margin for the seller.** Most small businesses are over-sold on CPU and under-sold on storage resilience, backup and UPS — the three things that decide whether a bad day is an inconvenience or an existential event. Engagements cover workload assessment and honest sizing, supply with warranty registered in your name, virtualisation on Proxmox, Hyper-V or VMware, a 3-2-1 backup design, a documented restore test you watch, and a UPS and thermal sanity check for the rack. ## Key facts | Item | Detail | | --- | --- | | Quoting | After a workload assessment — CPU, RAM, IOPS and growth, not a catalogue guess | | Hardware | Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Synology, TrueNAS, or specified for you to buy directly | | Virtualisation | Proxmox, Hyper-V, VMware — chosen on licence cost and your team's skills | | Backup | 3-2-1 across local, offsite and cloud, with Veeam or native tooling | | Proof | A restore test you attend before the project closes | | Coverage | On-site across India · remote configuration worldwide | ## What is delivered - Workload assessment and honest hardware sizing - Server, NAS and RAID supply with warranty registered to you - Virtualisation (Proxmox, Hyper-V, VMware) with resource planning - 3-2-1 backup design across local, offsite and cloud - Documented restore test — you watch the data come back - UPS, power and thermal sanity check for the rack - Monitoring, alerting and optional AMC coverage ## RAID is not a backup — and the difference costs businesses everything RAID protects against a drive dying. It does nothing about accidental deletion, ransomware encrypting the array, a fire, a theft, or a corrupted file that dutifully replicates across every disk in the set. Every one of those is more common than the failure RAID actually covers. You need both: RAID so a dead disk is a Tuesday afternoon rather than an outage, and a real backup so a bad decision or a bad actor is recoverable. | Threat | RAID helps? | Backup helps? | | --- | --- | --- | | Single drive failure | Yes | Yes, but slower | | Accidental file deletion | No | Yes | | Ransomware encryption | No — it replicates the damage | Yes, if a copy is offline or immutable | | Fire, flood or theft | No | Yes, if a copy is offsite | | Silent file corruption | Sometimes, with checksumming filesystems | Yes, with versioned history | | Someone deleting the array | No | Yes | ## On-premises, cloud or hybrid? For most Indian SMEs the answer is hybrid: local storage for speed and predictable cost on large working files, cloud for the offsite copy and for anything that must be reachable from outside the office. Pure cloud wins when data volumes are modest and staff are distributed. Pure on-premises wins when files are enormous, bandwidth is expensive, or residency rules apply. What I will not do is recommend one because it is what I am comfortable installing. ## The parts nobody quotes for, and everyone regrets - UPS sized to the actual load, with graceful shutdown configured — not just a beeping box - Thermal reality: a rack in an unventilated cupboard shortens hardware life dramatically - Warranty registered in your business name, with the support number in the handover pack - Monitoring that alerts a named person, not a dashboard nobody opens - Documented restore procedure written for someone doing it under pressure at 2am - A growth plan so the next storage purchase is scheduled rather than an emergency ## Pricing Server and storage projects are quoted after a workload assessment, with hardware at transparent supply cost. What I can publish is how the quote is structured. | Quote line | How it is priced | | --- | --- | | Workload assessment & sizing | Fixed fee, credited against the project if you proceed | | Hardware supply | At transparent cost — model, spec, warranty and price listed line by line | | Installation & virtualisation setup | Fixed fee per server or host | | Backup design & implementation | Fixed fee, including the witnessed restore test | | UPS & rack tidy-up | Quoted per site after the survey | | Server AMC | From ₹2,500 / month per server — monitoring, patching, health checks | *You may also buy the hardware directly with my specification and skip the supply margin entirely. Either way you see the exact models before anything is ordered.* ## How the work runs 1. **Workload assessment** — What actually runs, how much it grows, and what an hour of downtime costs you. 2. **Specification & quote** — Sized hardware with models and warranties listed, plus the backup and UPS design. 3. **Build, migrate, verify** — Installation, virtualisation, data migration and a reconciliation before the old system is retired. 4. **Restore test & handover** — You watch a real restore, then get documentation, credentials and an optional AMC. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is RAID a backup? No. RAID protects against a drive failing. It does not protect against deletion, ransomware, fire, theft or file corruption — and in the ransomware case it faithfully replicates the damage across every disk. You need RAID for uptime and a real backup for recovery. ### Cloud or on-premises for our files? Usually hybrid: local storage for speed on large working files, cloud for the offsite copy. Pure cloud suits modest data volumes and distributed staff; pure on-premises suits huge files, expensive bandwidth or residency requirements. ### Do you supply the hardware? Yes, at transparent pricing with model, spec and warranty listed line by line — or I specify it and you buy directly and skip the margin. Either way you see the exact models before anything is ordered, and the warranty is registered to your business. ### What is a 3-2-1 backup? Three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with one copy offsite. It is the minimum design that survives the common failure modes together rather than one at a time. An immutable or offline copy is added where ransomware is a realistic threat. ### Will you prove the backup works? Yes — a documented restore test is part of every engagement, and you attend it. Watching your own data come back is the only evidence that means anything, and the procedure is written down so someone else can repeat it at 2am. ### Which virtualisation platform do you use? Proxmox where licence cost matters and the team is comfortable with Linux, Hyper-V where you already hold Windows Server licences, VMware where existing tooling or support requirements demand it. The decision is about licences and skills, not ideology. ### What about power failures? UPS sizing, graceful shutdown configuration and generator coordination are part of the design. An undersized UPS that lets a server crash hard is worse than none, because it creates false confidence. ### Do you offer server AMC? Yes, from around ₹2,500 a month per server — monitoring, patching, firmware, health checks and verified backup reporting, with a defined response window. ## Related services - [Cloud consulting](https://samuelmarndi.com/services/cloud-consulting/) — AWS & Azure architecture, migration, cost cuts - [Networking & cabling](https://samuelmarndi.com/services/networking/) — Cat6/fibre, switches, VLANs, Wi-Fi, firewalls - [IT AMC (annual maintenance contract)](https://samuelmarndi.com/services/it-amc/) — Per-device annual cover for computers, servers and network - [IT consulting & support](https://samuelmarndi.com/services/it-consulting/) — Retainer support, procurement, IT roadmap --- *Published by [Samuel Marndi](https://samuelmarndi.com), independent IT consultant, Bengaluru, India. Source page: https://samuelmarndi.com/services/servers-storage/ Enquiries: +91 82803 20550 (phone and WhatsApp) · samuelmarandi6@gmail.com · Mon–Sat, 9am–7pm IST Quotes are written and itemised, issued within 24 hours.*