For many companies operating today the key to success is in developing and maintaining a reputation as a reliable business capable of delivering products and services to their clients and customers. Often times this reputation is built up over time and follows a pattern of consistently producing results that promote a sense of security and assuredness amongst those who trust them with their business.
Companies will go to great lengths to earn that reputation, taking the necessary steps to assure their customers that their expectations will be met. Whether it’s a well developed customer service course of action or a detail oriented quality control division these companies leave no stone unturned when safeguarding the integrity of their business.
In the past this meant that companies would focus a great deal of attention on who they hired and on monitoring performance among their employees. While that still rings true today there are new areas that a company must monitor to avoid losing their customers’ confidence.
Perhaps the most important area that needs to be addressed today is in the maintenance of a company’s computer network system. For all the hard work involved in earning a reputation as a reliable company there are few things that can destroy that standing as quick as a network crash.
The birth of the computer age opened up a whole new world for businesses and gave rise to innovative practices that produced more efficient and reliable methods of fulfilling customer demands. With their computer network at the forefront of their business many companies have found it easier to organize information, store important data, and communicate with their customers and clients.
While that reliance on a computer network can produce incredible success for a company it can also lead to a potential disaster if the health of that network is neglected. As instrumental as computers have become in today’s businesses every company should focus their attention on protecting their network from the dangers that are present.
One such danger is fragmentation and if left unchecked it will slowly destroy any company’s reputation for reliability. In an almost methodical manner fragmentation spreads throughout a computer’s hard drive, eventually causing such a slowdown that the system crashes. Unlike many other dangers to the health of a network, fragmentation is actually born on the hard drive and does not originate from an outside source.
Fragmentation is caused by the very nature in which files are saved and stored on a hard drive. Because a hard drive stores files in a contiguous manner it is impossible to make modifications, additions or delete an existing file without causing fragmentation. This means that when a file is saved it is placed immediately following the last file saved. When a file is recalled and additions are made it will no longer fit in that original space so the hard drive is forced to cut the excess information and store it in the next available space. By spreading a single file over several spaces on a hard drive the speed of the computer is significantly slowed.
There are several warning signs that will indicate a hard drive is being overrun by fragmented files. If you are experiencing a delay in logging on to your computer, a slowdown loading pages or applications, difficulty accessing or sending email or a browsing the internet chances are fragmented files have chocked the hard drive.
The solution to this problem is in the installation of defragmentation software. This simple act will not only clean the hard drive of fragmented files but will also prevent future files from becoming fragmented. Once installed defrag software will instantly increase the speed of the hard drive and restore the reliability of the network.
With the value of a company’s reputation often resting on the reliability of their computer network, the importance of defragmentation can’t be overlooked.
