If business could be boiled down to simplicity, it could be said that companies focus on two main activities: a constant search for new ways to market their product and a constant eye on the bottom line to cut operating costs. In nearly all business sectors, competition is fierce and only the fittest survive, so only those enterprises which are skilled in both operations win. A prime cost-cutting focus for any company should be on a seemingly lowly factor — computer file fragmentation.
Today nearly all aspects of corporate operation are based in computers. While computers have raised business processes to new heights of efficiency, they still have limitations. File fragmentation — the splitting of files into multiple parts on a hard drive — is a main limitation, one which can bring operations to a near-standstill. Files can be fragmented into tens, hundreds or thousands of fragments, and each fragment requires a computer operation to access it. A file which theoretically should take seconds can take minutes as it tries to accesses each tiny piece. Computer performance becomes increasingly slow, leaving users waiting for data instead of working and completing tasks.
Fragmentation affects every operation of a company. Sales personnel wait for quotes to be generated. Finance people wait for spreadsheets. Delivery waits for shipping orders. And everybody waits for email — often the sole method of communication between personnel, offices and between companies and the public.
Additionally, due to the extra hard-drive activity associated with fragmentation, hardware life is shortened.
The only true cost-cutting method for today’s computing environment is a fully automatic solution that provides its users with the reliability, speed and job proficiently computers were intended to provide. Such a solution is the only way that fragmentation can be fully addressed and computer performance and reliability can be maximized.
