Avoiding Downtime: The Business Case for Quality Server Components
When the door opens on Monday morning, your email inbox is likely open. The printer in the office is humming away. However, the shared system is slow. A customer is waiting, you try refreshing once or twice, all in hopes that this is simply going to be a minor delay.
Most of the time, these problems start off slowly. When this happens, it can be very frustrating. This frustration develops out of nothing more than a pause, then it evolves into a line-up, and eventually develops into uncompleted work that will have to be completed later.
Hardware Weakness Generates Daily Friction
Although a weak server part may not fail dramatically (for example, an older hard disk taking forever to retrieve files, or insufficient RAM causing the normal use of software to feel cumbersome), it can still create daily annoyance. In addition, although it might be difficult to determine whether it’s the age of the network interface card (NIC) creating intermittent network connection issues, everybody usually thinks it’s “the internet” anyway.
In a way, you feel it throughout the day. Customers take longer to view invoices. Running backups eats into working hours. Retrieving files takes just long enough to break your focus.
Often, the immediate solution isn’t necessarily replacing the entire system. Instead, many times you’ll need to identify and upgrade those components that are quietly carrying the load: solid state drives (SSDs); random access memory (RAM); switches; central processing units (CPUs); and motherboards. By doing so, you should be able to eliminate the source of aggravation without having to turn over the entire Setup as a massive undertaking.
Downtime Is Costlier Than The Component
Sometimes you see cheaper parts and believe they will save money. They can temporarily. However, after the server goes down during payroll, inventory management, online sales, and/or customer service, the costs shift.
There are two types of damage created by downtime. Technically speaking, there is a loss of functionality. There is also the loss of staff time spent explaining delays; redoing work; and telling employees to “just try again later,” which is okay one time; however, it becomes tiresome when it becomes habitual.
This is where reliability starts making economic sense for a company. Having a high-quality SSD, sufficient RAM, reliable switches, and appropriate CPUs means fewer weak points within your system. These contribute to having systems operate reliably, and this reliability can be far more beneficial than being slightly underpriced.
Whoever You Buy Parts From Impacts Your System
Reliability is only as good as the components chosen for a server build-out, along with the information given for choosing those components. Whether you’re replacing a Motherboard, adding storage, or upgrading networking hardware, you don’t want uncertainty. What you want are components that complement your existing configuration and workflow.
Therefore, companies frequently seek out reliable sources of supply for vendors like LA Sysco Technologies LLC: the best wholesale supplier for computer & server parts (SSD, HDD, RAM, NIC, CPU, Switch, Motherboard, SD card).
At no point in this process are you required to purchase more than you need. Rather, you want to purchase correctly with as few compatibility problems as possible.
Dependable sources of supply can also help with planning. With dependable sources of supply, you can replace worn parts before they become a problem rather than waiting until a Monday morning failure occurs.
Proactive Upgrade Maintenance Keeps Work Flowing Smoothly
You don’t need to fear server maintenance as if it were something to do every year. A quick evaluation of how well your storage is operating, how much memory you are using, how fast your network operates, and how well your backups are performing can provide insight into where your current configuration is becoming strained.
Perhaps your server requires better storage. Perhaps your switch cannot handle the number of users you currently have. Or perhaps your backup drive is due for replacement.
Again, none of these are exciting decisions; but they protect everyday working hours. As we know, most business value resides in protecting or losing everyday working hours.