|
Make do & mend - computing in a recession
|
|
| Keep on running |
Under normal circumstances it’s good
to have a planned replacement policy for old computer equipment
but this year, many firms will have trouble finding the capital
to do this. If you have to prioritise, take care of your servers
because they run your business and 5 years of doing that 24
x 7 is a good innings. (see guidelines for buying a server).
If your server is more than 5 years old, it may be difficult
or impossible to find parts to repair it after a major failure
and the chances of suffering downtime and business disruption
steadily increase.
You can afford to run desktop computers into the ground, providing
they still have the horsepower needed for the job they are doing
and the application is not so critical that a day or two without
the machine would bring your business to its knees. The components
most likely to fail are power supplies (generally standard items
that can be cheaply replaced) and then hard disks. Disk drives
nearly always give some warning of imminent failure. The computer
may be slow to startup or display warning messages about data
corruption. The trick is to catch the problem early. As soon
as you get any indication that things are not as they should
be then backup everything or better, clone it to another drive
(see Is your data really secure for advice on backing up) then
get the disk replaced. If you leave it until the thing deteriorates
to the point of being inoperable then restoring the system will
be much more expensive and you are very likely to lose some
data permanently in the process.
|
| Renovate your IT assets |
It is generally impractical to upgrade the
processor on an old machine (the manufacturer very likely stopped
making that range of chips long ago –actually about 3
months after you bought it!). You can, however, exploit the
fact that memory has got much cheaper to give your computer
a mid-life boost. More memory is the most cost-effective way
to improve a computer originally supplied with 256 or 512 Mb
of memory (why?). Most cheap desktops will have only 2 memory
slots, so you will probably need to throw out your two existing
128 or 256 Mb DIMMS to make room for a 1Gb module. Sometimes
you can’t combine memory of 2 different sizes. It depends
on the make and model.
However, you need to be realistic about the economic case for
upgrades. Your 5 year old machine is probably worth no more
than £100 and can be replaced with something five time
faster for less than £500. Upgrading memory and disk drives
and graphics processors will not make your old computer’s
electronics any younger and something will fail sooner rather
than later.
|
| Cap your software costs |
An unfortunate trend this year has been rising
costs for most software because of the sinking exchange rate
of the pound against the dollar and euro. Most computer users
felt they were paying too much for standard products from Microsoft,
Symantec and Adobe even before this happened. Before you spend
money on software check whether a different licensing scheme
might help.
OEM licenses for software bought with a new computer.
Charitable and Academic licensing often covers a whole range
of ‘not for profit’ organisations.
Would it be practicable to use ‘clone’ products
like Open Office in your business?
Are you making best use of ‘runtime’ versions and
free viewers for Access, Powerpoint etc.
Every supplier has their own rules and it is worth spending
a little time understanding the options, or seeking advice from
a specialist
|
| Use your staff more efficiently |
Are you staffing to cover the peaks (or, just in
case there are any peaks) in IT demand? Third party IT support
can fill gaps flexibly and economically by providing engineers
on an hourly/daily rate to help with new system deployments
or routine upgrades and repairs. They can offer a helpdesk service
for logging and resolving any support queries from your staff.
They can cover for holidays and sickness at short notice. The
best providers will take the time to understand your business
and application needs to provide support that is customised
to your organisation but without the overheads or long term
commitment of permanent staffing. |
visit
Orchard Computers website