All businesses, from the biggest corporations to the smallest privately-held companies, need to remain agile when it comes to technology.
Upgrading desktop computers, servers, and network infrastructure is essential to maintaining efficiency and growth.
Here is a look at five ways any company can upgrade in order to stay current, save money, and thrive.
1. New desktops: One thread that runs through any tech article like this is that technology ages quickly. If your organization’s desktops are over three years old, it’s time to start planning for replacement. Old desktops run down through constant use, installation of memory-eating applications and through the increasing hardware demands that new software makes on them. Businesses need to come up with a plan to rotate new computers into their desktop environment in order to increase efficiency and keep up with the demands of today’s robust apps. Converting to a thin client and cloud setup is now the way to go if your company is running five systems or more.
2. New servers: Dell servers and server platforms by other major hardware builders are available to fit the budget, software, and hardware needs of any company regardless of size. Adding new servers or replacing old ones with better hardware can help a business stay organized and effective. They will pay for themselves in this way.
3. Bottleneck checks: If your organization is experiencing diminished network performance, it may be time to look at network infrastructure. Replacing old routers and switches with new technology or adding switches to segment a network adds speed and efficiency to network performance. The less time employees spend waiting for file transfers, downloads, and big attachments the more time they can spend working and making money.
4. Virtualize servers: Virtualization is a way that companies can get more “bang for their buck,” allowing one server to act as many, stretching a technology budget even further. Smaller companies can’t often afford multiple physical servers they might need to grow. Buying one powerful server and using it as a virtual host that runs multiple virtual servers – functionally indistinguishable from physically discrete hardware – is a great way to expand functionality without spending more. Larger companies can save money by replacing hardware with virtual servers, lowering costs of power and maintenance and increasing disaster recovery performance.
5. Free apps: Think outside the box and research free applications that can help your business be more productive and save money. Instant messaging applications like Yahoo Messenger and AOL IM are much more efficient than walking to a coworker’s desk. Skype is free, so it’s much more affordable than a long distance call to communicate with employees in the field. Free antivirus apps like Microsoft Security Essentials and Avast are a great alternative to paid products and work just as well.
Gail Gardner
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Virtualization your business is such a great way to upgrade and organize. Thank you for sharing this information and suggestions!
Hi,
very informative article to upgrade..
especially Virtualization is a way that companies can get more “bang for their buck”..becoz small companies are can’t often afford multiple servers,so it is a great way to expand functionality without spending more…
Indeed.. The free applications help me save time and mobile data download charges by adding the maps i need in my mobile.
The free applications help me save time and mobile data download charges by adding the maps i need in my mobile.
In my company these free applications help us save time and mobile data download charges by adding the maps we need to us mobile.
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The free apps are becoming more and more important for the companies. I have been using Skype and Avast for quite some time now and I will tell you they are great.
Thanks for your valuable tips!
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I switched totally to laptops, but now I am rethinking this, and considering powerful desktop for more processing power.
Without think twice, I always use free apps. I love how a good idea can be developed for people working together in different parts of the world and finally the result is usually better than paid apps. regards
After working in IT and various tech-related jobs for so long, I have noticed a real trend where business rely on the same old computers for far far too long; They spend a whole lot of money on a series of PCs, and never upgrade, and these systems are used all day every day for a decade. And then they wonder why things don’t seem to be working like they want, 10 years down the road when technology has already made a significant shift in another direction that your old PC wasn’t built to handle.
It is essential to upgrade your technology. Everything is changing every year. So you must keep up with the new technology. Great post! Looking forward for another great article 🙂
Replacing old hardware either it is related to desktop computer or network hardware make the users to install new software and to understand the more aspects of technology.
Upgrading business is an integral part to expand business and move on to a better future in the corporate world. Expanding is what everyone desires and above you’ve mentioned the right and apt ways of expanding.
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I’d be curious to know what other free apps everyone is using, beyond Skype, AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Honestly, I’ve always been nervous to rely on a free antivirus solution.
The 5 ways you mentioned here are very informative, upgrading is an important one….
One more way that I believe a company can benefit from an upgrade is to move towards cloud computing. Where I use to use a ‘go to my pc’ type service to access my documents and spreadsheets when out the office, I now keep the majority of them in the cloud so that I can work on them anywhere.
With wifi available pretty much everywhere in my area, there is never a time I can’t get a file and if there is I can always pop to McD’s or Starbucks and use their wifi!
What do you think of cloud computing?
servers really required to be changed and up to date apps are important to choose. all the points are very important after all these changes you can say that i upgrade my business apps and business also.
Everything here will cost a lot of money, but it is important to do so at least for me. You’re right, to keep up with the current advancements in today’s businesses we have to do these upgrades. It is almost a required move for any business that wants to compete, it is a very good investment for the longterm progress of your company.
Hi Linda,
I’m surprised the article didn’t mention the other reason for upgrading your PC which is Web sites have so much more on them now than they once did. That is a major reason older PCs struggle to load some sites. (A slow Internet connection can also be a problem because sites are being designed with more and more multi-media and images on them.)
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I think it is mentioned on the first point itself.
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If you want to save more money, I highly recommend for anyone to use Skype as well as MSE. Skype offers free long distance calls and video calls and MSE or Microsoft Security Essentials is a reliable free antivirus that can be of great help to protect your computers. While both are free, take advantage of it now.
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New desktops are the best, I got one recently and it’s a gamers desktop with dual processors and like 6GB of RAM and it’s so much easier to work online, it TOTALLY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi JR,
Good to see you back out commenting. I’m jealous but what I would love to have is a quad processor to see if it could keep up with what I’m doing. I’m surprised more companies that sell technology aren’t contacting bloggers like us with offers to review their products because I for one would regularly rave about increased productivity, a larger monitor, and a padded keyboard and mouse pad. I could REALLY use them to get even more done.
Have you checked out the new CommentLuv Premium yet? It goes on public sale for the first time today at 7 a.m. EST and I linked to all the reviews I’ve found so far in the post I’ve put in CommentLuv in this reply.
I have a post that will go live just as people can actually find out what the price will be and actually be able to buy it at a special price for 7 days only. Even beta testers don’t know how Andy is pricing it yet.
I would advise anyone who wants it to buy it during that seven day window especially if it is a one-time charge because I’m guessing (and this is a TOTAL guess) that he might make it a subscription based service.
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These five ways revolves around the new technology which help improve the lapses by the old technology. Now a days it is necessary to improve your business, a fast, dynamic and efficient technology is must also.
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very informative article so less sites on the net which have this type of valuable content.nice work admin.keep sharing.bookmarked it
Gail, I really hope this was a paid post because it was complete crap. Also, don’t forget that it’s required that all paid posts contain disclosure that it was paid for.
Love you, but rather not see trash like this.
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Complete crap????
I totally disagree. This is a very relevant topic for all business and especially online marketing and Gail you’ve done a great job on this post!
Retweeted, Liked and Socialized!
Pace, I accept guest posts from many sources and while they are not like the content that I personally write, some of them end up being high traffic posts that benefit my readers.
Many small businesses are probably not aware that you can install virtual servers on a single physical box so that could be new information that will benefit them and free apps are always popular.
My readers need to remember that while some of my readers have advanced knowledge already, I intentionally provide content for new bloggers and small businesses that are not particularly tech savvy, too.
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I think this is only good for those business that uses computer and networking a lot. If not, I think there are more effective way of upgrading its business. Anyway, this post might help others. Cheers!
Bottlenecks are a real killer. Nothing like a little process innovation to tighten things up and increase your ROI 🙂
Great point! A good business requires good equipments. We must always try to keep our system updated and use the sophisticated technology as much as possible.
Keeping systems up to date it improves production time as well!