Running an enterprise can be a stressful endeavour. Balancing the technology you need versus the tech you can budget for is a big part of any enterprise. When it comes to technology investments, upgrading your operation starts with scalability.
Scalability is a huge benefit to have, and no matter what enterprise you are running, be it in-house servers and workstations to a data centre. It is crucial that you build your machines with scalability in mind to future proof your enterprise as much as possible.
This will save you money in the long run and help you avoid the costly process of losing out on clients because you don’t have the capabilities you need for your enterprise.
Let’s delve into technology you should invest in to upgrade your enterprise operations.
Motherboards
It doesn’t matter how good your other parts are. If your motherboard isn’t up to the job of housing these parts and creating a working environment for the parts, all that capital you spend will be for nothing.
The motherboard is vital to the functioning of any server or workstation – it provides a place for all your parts to communicate and essentially serves as the ‘hub’ for your machine.
Skimping on a motherboard will negatively impact your ability to serve your customers no matter the current scale of your business. Get a good motherboard, and everything else will fall into place.
Power Supply Units (PSUs)
The power supply unit, shortened to PSU, is arguably the second most important bit of kit in any computer set up – server, workstation, even personal PC or otherwise.
This unit will draw power from the wall and distribute it to all the different parts of your machine.
If the PSU is not powerful enough, your machine might not even turn on, and if it does, it will be prone to frequent crashing.
On the flip side, if the PSU is too powerful, you risk having a lot of unspent power usage and untapped potential from your machine.
This isn’t an issue if you have a fairly modular setup, as certain machines allow for more than one PSU to be added. However, most machine setups don’t have this feature.
A recommendation would be to build the machine you need around your requirements and buy the PSU last – to ensure you have calculated to have a powerful enough PSU.
It is situational, but if you plan on a fast expansion, it may be worth buying a larger than needed PSU to allow for scalability. It may mean you will have untapped potential from your machine for a while but allow for upgrades in the future.
Cooling Equipment
Enterprises get hot – at any scale, and while PSUs that withstand more heat are great, keeping things cool offers that extra assurance.
Ensuring that your tech is set up in a cool environment will keep it running consistently and reliably with no unexpected overheating issues.
From chillers to enterprise-specific fans, there are several excellent cooling options available, although cooling costs can prove to be significant.
That being said, they cost less than needing to replace damaged tech, so a good combination of resilient and powerful PSUs and cooling tech is key for productive operations.
Networking Tech
Your enterprise will only run as smoothly as its networking tech; make sure that data distribution is seamless and high-quality with ethernet switches and wireless routers.
Queues and unexpected workloads can really harm the productivity of an enterprise, so it’s key to avoid this through a great networking framework.
This will work alongside your motherboard to keep data freely and smoothly moving throughout an enterprise, which will allow more to get done in a day.
You can usually pick up a networking switch or router that’s fit for enterprise purposes without breaking the bank, and it’s a worthwhile investment as it saves you time, and in the fast-paced data management environment, time is money!
Firewalls
If you are thinking of buffing up your networking, you’re also going to consider your security.
Small and medium-sized enterprises are among the most common targets for malicious attackers, and improving networking offers would-be attackers with more points of access.
Ensure they are denied access with a proper firewall that will ensure data is only managed and accessed by those who should have access.
While you’re at it, look into pentesting, which is a simulated attack from an ethical hacker.
If you know your weak point, you’ll be able to address it before a genuine hacker gets a chance to access your systems.
Remote Access Controllers
What do you do when things go wrong? Well, that’s not always an easy answer, but it’s made a little easier with remote access controllers.
You can be off-site, and should a system fail, you’ll know straight away. Not only that, you’ll know specifically what’s wrong with the damaged systems.
This means that you can get issues resolved promptly, which will allow you to return to normal operations sooner.
This cuts down on housekeeping, as you don’t need to constantly check to ensure your systems are functioning properly, as you have instant access to that information.
Additionally, You can use a remote access controller for general insight into enterprise operations.
This will allow you to assess workloads and plan accordingly in real-time, either on or off-site.
Solid State Drive and Hard Drive Setup
The last primary aspect you should always consider upgrading is your hard drives and solid-state drives. Every enterprise will be different, so your requirements will be vastly different from the next.
What is always recommended is running your operating system on a solid-state drive with plenty of space. If efficiency and speed are of the utmost importance, then dedicate a whole solid-state drive to just your operating system.
Hard drives are what you should use for storing massive amounts of information. Generally, the bigger, the better.
Go out there and get upgraded!
