Category: Blog

An underperforming asset is, often enough, not really an asset at all. Whether it's an analytics program that's more trouble than it's worth or a sales force that's more focused on getting commissions than keeping customers, improving the underperforming asset is well worth your while. Data centers are no different here, and improving data center performance will help get data where it needs to be faster and more effectively.Better Data Center Performance is a Few Basic Principles AwayIf you … [Read more...]

Many of the tasks businesses tackle each day are considered priorities. This includes activities such as measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign, tracking the rate of cash flow through the business, and a host of others operations. But how often do we consider the efficiency of hardware use in data center operations? For far too many businesses, the answer is never. How Can I Measure Efficiency of Hardware Use in Data Center Operations?If you can't measure it, you can't manage it, or … [Read more...]

Change is inevitable in the data center. Whether it's a new PC processor, a new operating system, or an advance related to data center operations such as new storage or networking technologies, everything has to work with what's already installed. Digital transformation is no different, and it means plenty of change for the data center.What Changes are Hitting the Data Center Due to Digital Transformation?Digital transformation is prompting several changes in the data center.Simplified … [Read more...]

“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” That old adage has carried a lot of people through a lot of situations, mainly because it's so often been right. There are, however, exceptions to just about every rule, and one of the best exceptions is the concept of third-party maintenance (TPM). Using TPM can make a big difference in everyday operations, benefiting your entire operation.Is Third-Party Maintenance Right for Your Business?There are several ways to tell if TPM can … [Read more...]

Any hardware needs a certain amount of maintenance in order to continue running at its peak for any length of time; any other plan is basically just a slippery slope to premature obsolescence. Yet there are a lot of different ways to carry out data center hardware maintenance, so take a closer look at the best practices in this field.How Do I Carry Out the Right Data Center Hardware Maintenance?Keep these points in mind to find the best course for your data center.Consider the value. Value is a … [Read more...]

“It's hard to find good help these days.” This old saw is often especially felt in IT, where a set of skills is required that takes years to develop fully. While it does tend to vary depending on the field in question, the talent gap is quite real to one extent or another, and third party maintenance—especially third party hardware maintenance—can fill the gap quite readily.How Can Third Party Maintenance Fill the Talent Gap?A report from LinkedIn and Capgemini found that … [Read more...]

Data, and its generation, is an inescapable fact of life. Thomson Reuters recently noted that, within the next three years, every human being on the planet will create 1.7 megabytes of data per second. That translates into a planet-wide data creation rate of 44 trillion gigabytes per second. Thankfully, most businesses won't have to accommodate that kind of data, but with data generation universally on the rise, businesses have to consider the next step in what to do about all of it.What … [Read more...]

How well is your data center working for your business? From security to customer support, there are a few key areas to consider when checking on the health of your data center. … [Read more...]

It would be easy to look at the current environment, with its ever-increasing reliance on the cloud and cloud-based systems, and say that data center infrastructure is a waste of money and IT professionals' time. After all, why stock the hardware necessary to run your own operations when you can just rent time on someone else's hardware, and let them handle the heavy lifting that comes with maintenance and upgrades? Even in this environment, the role of the mainframe is still alive and well, … [Read more...]

It's clear that cloud-based data centers are gaining a lot of ground, to the point where some, using statistics recently gained from Cisco's Global Cloud Index (GCI), are suggesting the private data center only has about three years to live as a concept before it's almost completely replaced by cloud-based operations. However, the GCI also points out that private data centers are also working, and even gaining, leading some to call this the “multi-cloud era.”Why Is the Private Data … [Read more...]