This is a complex task and will generally require some expert assistance from Communicat or another specialist. Obviously, if you purchase a faster server, additional servers, with faster disks, and/or increase your memory you should see an improvement in system performance, however this depends on where the bottleneck is on your network.
If the bottleneck problem is the speed of the link, or the workstation’s processing power, or a badly balanced system then purchasing a faster server will make little difference in the user’s overall experience.
Here are a few of the “less obvious” tips which can make a surprising difference to overall performance:
- Firstly, obtain some expert advice on where the bottleneck is. Then, improve that component, or reconfigure it. A few hundred dollars spent with an expert consultant can deliver dramatic speed improvements, often 300% or more, without the need to purchase any hardware at all.
- Server disk configuration – for database applications, such as accounting software, CRMs, etc. dramatic speed improvements can be gained by setting up your hard disk configuration in a way which will optimise the amount of disk re-writing. This may involve purchasing additional hard disks, or it may be a simple matter of reorganising your existing disks.
- Balance the workload on your servers. Some software applications are extremely “hungry”. For example, some reporting packages will draw all the processing power they can obtain from your server. This will reduce the amount of power available for other critical processes. Sometimes this will result in non-critical processes (such as running reports) cause a dramatic reduction in speed of critical processes (e.g. running your accounting software). Non-critical processes should be allocated to server resources where they can be properly managed.
Schedule power-hungry processes to be run at non-critical times.
