Every IT manager knows that network users consume capacity like kids eat candy. Users and developers instantly find ways to utilize all the available power and storage. It is a demand for faster connections, database applications, e-commerce, increasingly complex documents, and streaming video that forces IT managers to constantly plan for the next upgrade. IT managers also know that servers need to provide more than storage.
Users demand quick response time.
As a first step, IT managers can enhance network performance using switches and enhanced transport connections like 100M-bps Ethernet and fiber optic backbones. Still, the managers know that an upgrade looms behind each new application. Selecting the right server for an organization is not an easy task, however. The choice requires IT managers to realistically assess the processing and throughput demands of their companies. They must ascertain the demands that the network will place on the server, examine the costs associated with maintaining the server or servers, and determine the future costs of upgrading the server.