The right tool for the right job

Well the end of the year is rapidly approaching, and as is often the case the scramble is on to close out IT budgets. To that end many of you are looking at the purchase of new hardware to replaceme legacy systems. One of the questions that we hear often is “what kind of laptop/desktop/server should I get?”

Unfortunately, there is no quick answer to that.

There are a myriad of factors that should be given very careful consideration before settling on a particular make or model as not all systems are created equal.

If you are looking at replacing a workstation, whether it be a laptop for a mobile worker or a desktop for your marketing guru, the first question that should be answered is what are you going to be doing with this computer? The processing needs, graphics rendering, and storage requirements of your accounting department are vastly different from those of your PR , web development, or marketing crew. The workstation that your bookkeeper has been using for the last two years and is absolutely thrilled with would hardly provide even marginally acceptable performance for the web designer/illustrator whose day is filled with editing photos, creating multimedia presentations, and rendering DVD’s for trade shows.

The same philosophy holds true when considering the replacement of your servers. The requirements for a basic FTP server will differ enormously from those of that new server that you are planning on running your latest implementation of virtual servers/workstations on. Of course, with these differing requirements are the associated costs. The basic FTP server mentioned above is going cost much less than the hardware for a new virtual machine consolidation.

Not only are the day-to-day uses of the machines to be taken into consideration, we also need to attempt to look into the future. How long are you planning (or hoping) that this workstation/server last? If you’re like most of us, you only want to go through this process every 3-5 years. So, how do we decide what hardware to focus on? As I mentioned above the role that the machine is going to fill is the first/best step in the process. Once this is determined then we can begin looking at the makes/models that provide hearty enough hardware. Although the FTP vs. virtual server comparison above rather drastic, all too often we have had new clients come to us and ask us to determine “why is machine X so slow?” often times the poor performance is due to the fact that insufficient consideration to the role the machine was going to fulfill was taken. After all, you “can” drive a nail with a pair of pliers, but who would recommend that? In addition to substandard performance, forcing an under-powered machine to fulfill an overly demanding role will very likely reduce the serviceable lifespan of the machine since it will be working at such a higher level than it was designed for, ultimately resulting in the requirement to replace it earlier than had been planned.

In short, if you look closely at what roles the machines will fill on a daily basis and adjust your focus properly, add a small cushion to accommodate for future growth coupled with future processing and storage demands, there is no reason that well-selected hardware fit all of your needs and provide exceptional performance for several years.

- Kevin Sheedy, Project Manager