There is a saying that states the belief “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” and over the years this adage has found its way into just about every business meeting when discussing the value of building a strong foundation for success. With this belief in mind a company looks to hire individuals who display an ability to consistently perform at their highest level day-in-day-out thus producing a team of reliable employees who can depend upon each other to complete tasks and get the desired results.
While companies spend a great deal of time addressing the human component of this saying they often overlook the importance of ensuring their hardware meets the same expectations. Of course a company wouldn’t settle for a phone system that failed to handle incoming calls or a cash register that could only capture payments on random transactions. A company instantly recognizes that these failures costs them money and jeopardizes their ability to stay in business.
Where a company often falls short in is in the protection of their computer network system. Ironically it is this network that ensures all areas of a business run efficiently and provides employees with the necessary tools to meet the demands of their job.
For whatever reason companies often fail to realize just how much they rely upon their network. Everything from communication and company information to online shopping and distribution are directly tied to the network and when something goes wrong all areas of business feel the hit. When a company’s computer network system becomes the weakest link it won’t be long before everything else falls apart.
What often causes a network system to fail is the computer disease known as fragmentation. Just like any other disease fragmentation will continue to get worse as the problem is ignored and eventually the network will crash, causing everything that has been saved and stored to be lost. The cost this places on a company transcends a dollar amount as it will inevitably call in to question their reliability.
Fragmentation is related to the manner in which all information is saved and stored on a hard drive. In order to maximize space a hard drive is designed to save files in a contiguous manner, meaning each time a file is saved it is placed directly behind the previous file. This method proves problematic when an existing file is retrieved and modified and then resaved. That file will no longer fit in the same space so the hard drive fragments the file, saving the additional information in the next available space. Over time a single file can become broken into thousands of pieces causing a serious hit to the network’s speed.
Each time a fragmented file is retrieved the hard drive is forced to search for all the pieces that comprise that file. This process is what’s responsible for those lengthy delays you experience while waiting for your request. For a computer network to be overrun by fragmented files means every employee has their hands tied when they try to access information or upload applications and content and this means no matter how strong of a link they are their work will only be as productive as the network system.
In order to ensure the computer network system is running as efficiently as possible it is imperative to install defragmentation software. This simple solution will quickly scan the network for fragmented files and repair the damages by saving the pieces as in a single space. By doing this the network’s speed is dramatically increased because the hard drive no longer has to search for thousands of pieces but rather a unified file.
With the speed of a network restored employees can once again maximize their time at work and quickly access and send information without delays. Less idle time translates into more work being completed and in turn a more profitable business.
The great thing about defragmentation software is that once it has been installed it will continue to monitor the hard drive even after the initial scan. This protects the network from recurring fragmentation and sustains the health of the computer system.
