The Upgrade Talk: Is It Time For a Refresh?

Nothing lasts forever. Nowhere is this more readily apparent in business than your computing and technology assets. As any tech-reliant business can vouch, your hardware is on a ticking clock; it’s only a matter of time before the costs of maintenance outweigh the benefits provided. An even more concerning scenario is when the assets no longer perform and cause you to lose out on business.

You’re going to need to refresh sooner or later. Identifying the right moment is another matter entirely. With the tech market the way it is — flooded with jargon, pushy sales staff, and seemingly indistinguishable products — deciphering meaningful data from noise can be frustrating and feel like you’re choosing solutions at random.

We’re going to level with you. This month, we’re sharing our top reasons it might be time for a refresh — and some reasons why it may make more sense to defer.

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way.Your business is growing — congratulations! After you’re done celebrating, take a hard look at your digital infrastructure.

More business can mean more data or greater demand on response times. Both of these may mean enhanced storage and compute requirements. More system capacity means scaling your existing infrastructure … assuming your current architecture and equipment support this, that is! If simple scaling isn’t an option, you may want to use your upgrade funding to support current demands along with an architecture that will support better scaling in the future.
Our Call: Refresh

As reliable as the tides, technology continues to improve. Sometimes in giant leaps forward, but more often in incremental steps. Over time, those small steps add up. After a few years, you may wonder if remaining with the status quo has left you behind.
Let us be clear here: Level doesn’t advocate upgrading just for the sake of upgrading; we provide impactful solutions to our clients. If you think it’s time to upgrade just because it’s been a few years since your last system refresh, think again! In our experience, reliable, effective, and supportable are more important than new.
Our Call: Don’t Refresh

Is productivity slowing down and you can’t figure out why? Your unoptimized systems could be the source of a slow down in your workflow. It could be that your business just needs more resource power (i.e., CPU & memory) to help improve performance.
Storage certainly plays a key role in performance, as well. There have been many leaps forward in storage technologies, including all-flash and, more recently, NVMe and SCM.
If your systems seem sluggish, we can talk you through it, and help you discover the right solutions for your needs.
Our Call: Likely Refresh

When it’s crunch time and you’re processing a huge batch of work orders, retraining staff can be more trouble than it’s worth. Sure, new infrastructure could expedite your workflow … eventually. But these are long term solutions, and require an appropriate, dedicated bit of lead time to see maximum return on investment.
You want to make sure you’ve got the resources available — and chief among those resources is time. Make sure your team is in a spot where they have the time to absorb new processes before you pull the trigger on an upgrade.
Our Call: Don’t Refresh (Yet)

Hardware isn’t the only part of the equation. Software advancements can also cause hiccups in your processes. New services and more powerful tools require equally powerful compute and storage capability. When you want your business to have access to the latest and greatest in industry best practices, you’re going to need hardware that can make those practices sing.
You wouldn’t put racing fuel in your Ford Pinto (we hope!), so don’t use old infrastructure with your new, high-performance software either.
Our Call: Refresh

If it is time to upgrade your data center infrastructure, you’re going to need help. The upgrade process can be technically demanding and complicated, and oftentimes seems like an uphill struggle.

The tech team at Level are here to help make the journey less steep and more manageable. We’ll guide you through the process quickly and transparently, getting you all the answers you need and nothing more.