Server Support in Ripley

Usually, yes. Across a Ripley yard the workshop tends to be linked back by a cheap wireless bridge or a long cable run that has taken a battering over the years. We test where the connection is actually dropping rather than guessing, then fit a proper point-to-point link or new cabling in the right grade. Once it is stable, drawings and job costing stop timing out mid-job.

There are two ways to work with us. Pay as you go is a clear hourly rate for one-off jobs, billed for the time actually spent. A monthly support plan covers monitoring, patching and a set amount of support for a fixed fee, priced on how many servers you run and what is on them. We quote before any work starts, so you are never surprised by the invoice.

Call 0115 990 4332 and a real engineer picks up, not a call centre. For urgent issues we aim to respond the same day, and most server faults we can start working on remotely as soon as we have your call. If it needs hands on the hardware, we drive out to you. We are open 9am to 9pm, seven days a week.

No. Plenty of businesses call us purely when something breaks and pay for the time we spend. If you want monitoring, patching and priority when you ring, a monthly plan makes more sense, and there is no long tie-in on that either. We would rather you stay because the servers keep running than because a contract says you have to.

Most of it is remote. Monitoring, patching, user accounts, permissions, performance tuning and the majority of faults we handle over a secure connection without setting foot in your office. Hardware is the exception: a failed disk, a dead power supply, new memory or a physical move needs an engineer on site, and we come out for that.

We start with a free server health check. That means documenting what you actually run, checking patch levels, disk space, backup jobs and support end dates, then giving you a short written list of what is fine, what is risky and what it would cost to put right. No obligation after that, and no pressure to sign anything.

Virtualisation means running several separate servers as software on one physical machine. In practice that means less hardware to buy, power and replace, and a failed box can be restored onto different hardware in hours rather than days. Most businesses with more than one server benefit. If you only run a single small server, it is often not worth the extra layer, and we will say so.

If it is patched, backed up, in warranty and someone is watching it, then no. In practice, the servers we get called to at 8am on a Monday are the ones nobody had looked at for two years. The point of support is that small problems, a full disk or a failing drive, get caught while they are still small and cheap.

Yes, and it happens often. We do not need anything from them to get started: we document the server ourselves, take our own monitoring and backups, and work through anything we find. You will need admin passwords and any licence details, and we will give you a checklist of what to ask for. Most handovers are done inside a fortnight.

Both. Plenty of day-to-day faults get sorted remotely the moment you ring, without anyone leaving their desk. But Ripley is about twenty-five minutes from us on the A610, so when something needs hands on it we come out. Dead switches, cabling, a server that will not boot, a new machine on the shop floor: that is a visit, and for urgent jobs we aim to be there the same day.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and we will tell you which. If your drawings, machine files or job-costing software need to sit on the local network, a properly specified on-site server with a backup that actually gets tested is still the right answer for a lot of Ripley workshops. We look at what your kit really does, then show you which route costs less over five years.