Does cloud computing make sense for your business? More and more businesses are switching to the cloud each and every day. Why? It’s recommended by most managed IT companies because it is more convenient and cost efficient. First, you have to ask yourself if the benefit of the cost will justify the disruption that takes place when you conduct a data center migration. Not only will this be costly, it will also be complicated. The aspect that takes up the most time to migrate is the mission critical system. While it makes up the smaller part of the data center, it will still have the greatest expense and time to migrate. When it comes to the savings, that will depend on the project, and it will also vary from organization to organization.
Savings with the cloud will often take place through the hardware, labor and software. Also, ask yourself if you have applications that will need specific hardware. In some cases, you will not be able to virtualize the hardware components, and while you might feel tempted, we do not recommend migrating this type of system to the cloud. The advantage of using the cloud is how you have maximum scalability as needed. We are not saying that people should not use the cloud, but what we are saying is that good planning will lead to a more successful migration.
Computer Maintenance: How to Have a Healthy Computer
You may think of business maintenance, but computer maintenance rarely comes to mind. How many times in the last year have you discovered that your new computer did something that you did not expect? You would call your local IT guy, and they’d diagnose the problem and spend a few hours fixing it. However, that time spent fixing your computer hurts your productivity levels.
What can business owners do to maintain their computer? First, clean your computer. The average person sheds around one million skin cells in a single day. At that end of the year, that adds up to about eight pounds of dead skin, and that dust will accumulate on your computer monitor, keyboard and desk. When cleaning your computer, however, use an anti-static wipe to protect it from static electricity. Dust that accumulates around the vents of your computer can cause it to overheat and shutdown the system. Avoid taking canned air to blow the dust away because this can leave moisture in the electronic system and cause more damage.
Another step to expert computer maintenance is managing the free space on your hard drive. Computers will have many shapes and sizes, but sooner or later, all of them will have their hard drive fill up. That can have a real impact on the speed and performance of your computer. In general, you want to keep at least 10 percent empty space on your hard drive. If you only have one or two gigabytes of hard drive space, then it might be time to free up some space on your hard drive.
