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Ensuring reliability in your computing system

Ensuring reliability in your computing system

4th May 2021

Reliability or uptime stems from a combination of many factors. Some of the largest factors contributing to high-availability and uptime include people, process, operations, equipment selection, maintenance, lifecycle, and risk mitigation strategies. Reliability affects availability, but they are not the same thing in a world that experiences downtime and failures. Reliability also impacts operating costs. More downtime equals more maintenance and repair spending.

Develop a lifecycle strategy

A lifecycle strategy encompasses a preventative and predictive maintenance program combined with other strategies that are all focused on increasing the lifecycle and prolonging mean time between failure (MTBF) of the systems, equipment, components, and the data center as a whole. It will involve processes and strategies that include:

  • A “replace before fail” strategy
  • An equipment rotation strategy
  • An equipment replacement strategy
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    Make redundancy part of your strategy

    Redundancy through off-site or cloud computing and storage is a vital element of a robust reliability strategy. Service Level Agreements are key to ensuring your provider will meet each and every one of your needs. Look for those providers who promise better than 100% uptime, who can meet your compliance and audit needs and follow your best practice mandates.

    Velocity Tech Solutions provides secure, reliable remote backup and data storage services for businesses of all sizes. Whether you need secure backup, ransomware protection or are interested in cloud migration, we can provide the perfect off-site data storage option. We offer leading edge business continuity services through trusted partners like Zadara and DataCore.

    Learn more about Velocity’s cloud computing, backup and virtualization services

    Monitor and test your systems regularly

    Properly configured Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) monitoring systems can provide immediate notification of changes in your critical system’s infrastructure before they become potential issues and can be used to track and report errors or other performance metrics. Combined with a lifecycle strategy, DCIM systems allow IT managers to proactively maintain uptime and avoid costly hardware failures.

    Trust your hardware

    It’s critical that IT managers be able to rely on their equipment. That means the entire data center infrastructure must meet rigorous standards, whether the components in question are high-powered servers, high-capacity storage devices or cabling and power supplies. At the same time, the cost of new equipment can be prohibitive. Choosing reliable refurbished hardware can be an excellent solution to both challenges.

    Our refurbished servers undergo extensive testing throughout our configuration process. We perform initial validation testing when the product arrives in our facility. Following configuration, we certify the product in a final test before shipment. We stand behind every server and hard drive that leaves our facility.

    Discover our complete line of new and refurbished servers

    Practice Reliability Centered Maintenance

    Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is a process that ensures maintenance tasks are performed in an efficient, cost-effective, reliable, and safe manner. Maintenance tasks may be preventive, predictive, or involve nondestructive inspections in order to identify or monitor flaws. Here are a few key questions to start your organization down an RCM path.

    • Have you completed an equipment criticality analysis?
    • Do you track mean time between failures (MTBF) routinely?
    • Have you optimized your preventive maintenance (PM) plans?
    • Do you track equipment failures and improve your processes accordingly?

    Velocity Tech Solutions can help ease the burden of RCM maintenance on your team. We provide remote and on-site server maintenance, troubleshooting and support nationwide. We support a wide range of server brands, including DellEMC, Cisco and HP. You’ll get experienced technical support for your entire server infrastructure, with the convenience of one comprehensive maintenance contract.

    Explore our maintenance services

    Benefits of reliability planning

    A well-designed reliability program can result in a reduction of equipment failures and maintenance costs, improved work order efficiency and increased asset useful life. Side benefits include capturing equipment history for asset management and annual budgeting and systematically eliminating root causes of experienced failures.

    Velocity Tech Solutions offers products and services to expand and deepen your reliability strategies. 

    Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.