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The Importance of Computing Hardware

How important is your computer hardware to your day to day operations? Chances are that without it, your business would be hurting or even non-existent. Where would you be without your backup technology and do you know who to call in the event of something happening to your hardware? There are IT services and tech support options all over the globe. For example, in Ottawa, there is Firewall Technical, meanwhile most other major cities around the world have similarly ranked IT support services at the ready.

Places like this will provide IT services and support to companies near them. They will deliver the tech support that is needed to maintain, deploy, and even improve your networks, servers, mobile devices, and desktop computers.

These things are critical when it comes to the success and profitability of your business… especially when your business is a small one. You need support that is proactive and detail oriented to ensure that you and your staff have the IT services that you want and need right when you want or need them. They can assist in creating the ideal infrastructure for your business while also providing support on a day to day basis to ensure that your staff has the prompt support they need when issues arise.

Tools for Monitoring Your Network

There are also some online tools that you can use to monitor your network. You need these because networks are a critical part of the success of your business. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. Some of the tools out there happen to be ones that are free. Don’t think that just because they are free, they aren’t any good. Some of them are excellent… like Ganglia.

Ganglia is a distributed monitoring system that is scalable. It is for computing systems that are high performance – like grids and clusters. This program is based on a hierarchical design that has been targeted at federations of clusters.

Back It Up

Businesses today generate more data than ever and luckily, storage tech is becoming cheaper and more plentiful. This means that your small business has to do some work in order to build a backup and storage strategy that is effective.

DAS (Direct Attached Storage) is a term used to describe storage devices that you attach directly to the server or PC by way of a USB peripheral port. One of the weaknesses of this type of storage is that you have to do batch or ad hoc backups to copy your data, meaning that they could possibly contain versions of files that are not up to date.

NAS (Network Attached Storage) connects right to the network. It has the attendant capabilities like a file server and can accept a multitude of storage drives. There is redundancy in the form of RAID and NAS supports a variety of file protocols so that it will be compatible with laptops and desktops.

One type of backup device is a SSD – Solid State Drive. When compared to a hard drive, this might seem a bit pricey, but they are fast, small, durable and don’t require a lot of power. They are also great for those times when you need that extra speed that having more storage space can give you. Best of all is the fact that they are uber secure.

When you depend on your computer hardware like we do on a day to day basis, it is critical that it remain functioning perfectly. To lose even a few hours is to lose money and small businesses just can’t afford that. Therefore the message is clear: quality hardware makes a difference in a world where most businesses operate in a digital realm.

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