Whether you are a small business, a mid-sized NPO or a large-scale, multinational enterprise, the size of your fax server is important. If your fax server is too small, your organization risks becoming slow and inefficient. If your fax server is too large, you are wasting money on underutilized resources.
How Large Does a Fax Server Need to Be?
We hate to say, “it depends,” but it really depends. A properly sized fax server needs to be large enough to transmit and receive the amount fax pages an organizations handles at any given time. That’s why, when we start working with a new client, some of the initial questions we ask are:
- How many fax pages do you send every day?
- How many fax pages do you receive every day?
The Rule of Thumb
It’s not an exact scientific equation, but a good rule of thumb is to allow for one page to be sent or received every minute. Some pages will take only seconds to send, some may take longer than a minute. It all depends on the information on the page (text, images, etc.) and the speed at which the pages are sent.
There are 1440 minutes in a day, so if you are non-stop sending and faxes all day, every day, your server will be able to transmit 1440 pages in single day, provided you only use a single channel. Adding more fax channels will increase the average number of faxes you can send in a given day. Two channels will be able to send 1440 fax pages in 12 hours, and so forth. Adding more channels increases your daily page count and the load your fax server can handle.
To cut the equation down to fit an 8-hour work day, you are working with 480 minutes. If you are an enterprise who processes 2000 faxes pages in a given 8-hour work day, you will need at least four fax channels, which will give you enough bandwidth to handle all the pages while leaving some to spare.
Account for Growth
While it’s not very complicated to add more channels to a fax server, it will require you getting in touch with your fax provider and setting up an appointment to increase the size if your server. If your organization is growing, it’s best to account for how many fax pages you expect to be handling in the next 3-5 years and have a server installed that will account for your expected growth.
Need Help Determining Your Fax Server Size?
Sizing your fax server is one of the most important things an organization can do, which is why we are here to help you determine the proper size for your organization. Get in touch with The Fax Guys to start building your fax solution today.
Leave a Reply