When Do You Know When It’s Time For an Upgrade?

Nothing lasts forever; this phrase is true regardless of which industry you’re in or business you run. We all use technology in the office to a certain extent, and the ugly truth is that someday that technology will fail. It’s critical that you monitor technology for warning signs prior to its failure so as to avoid costly repair bills and rushed replacements. You might be surprised by how much you save as a result.

Physical Signs
Your business’ technology will showcase physical signs of wear and tear. You might hear a hard drive humming a little more loudly than normal, or you might hear a fan working just a little harder than usual. These are all signs that not all is well inside the machine. Be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary, especially if there is dust buildup and your machine is an older model. After all, the older a machine is, the more likely it is to suffer from hardware failure--particularly if it’s running a hard disk drive (HDD) rather than a solid state drive (SSD).

Digital Signs
This is a particularly good way of identifying issues with your computers. If operational deficiencies aren’t resolved by a good restart, chances are there is something going on behind the scenes that is complicating the matter. If your machine has trouble keeping up with your usual workload--when you open up multiple tabs in a web browser, for example--chances are you should be a little concerned about the future of your device.

What to Do
The second your device, be it a smartphone or desktop, starts to function in a way that doesn’t seem normal, reach out to your organization’s IT resource. Unfortunately, some small businesses don’t have these resources on-site, as maintaining a functional team of technicians can be costly on the budget. You shouldn’t see this as a way to eliminate unneeded costs, though. After all, downtime and data loss can have devastating results on any unprepared organization. What we’re here to tell you is that there is a solution out there even for small businesses with limited capital, and it’s called outsourced IT solutions from Washington Works.

We can remotely monitor your devices to check their health at any given time. We can keep close watch on any devices that are failing to perform as intended. This ultimately leads to you knowing when something is wrong with your devices, giving you time to react before they fail and take your data (and productivity) with them. To learn more about how we can take care of your technology, reach out to us at 301-571-5040.