A computer network system is the backbone of almost every business as it facilitates communication, enables employees to share documents, files, data, software, and hardware, as well as preserves information and improves efficiency within a business. The health of a computer network system can be directly related to the capabilities of a business’s website and if that network is not performing at its peak then it can be expected that the website’s operational abilities will suffer.
The health of a computer network system can be compromised for a number of reasons but the most common is known as fragmentation. This computer disease targets the files that have been saved and stored on a network’s hard drive, causing the network to slow and affecting its reliability. As a progressive disease the damage caused by fragmentation continues to get worse as it goes untreated until inevitably it causes a network to crash, a catastrophic event for any business.
Operational websites rely on a business’s computer network system in that the files and software used to keep them running are accessible and reliable. When fragmentation takes hold of a network those files and software can become difficult to locate and may be damaged, making them useless and essentially ruining the integrity of a website.
This scenario will play out if fragmentation is not put in check because the computer disease is a natural process, a direct result of how a hard drive saves and stores files. When files are saved they are stored directly behind the last files saved, leaving no space between the two. Of course files on a network system are often opened, modified and resaved and this is where the problem of fragmentation comes in. Because the additional information increases the size of the modified file it will no longer fit in its original space on the hard drive, forcing the drive to cut the excess information and store it in the next available space.
The breaking of a file into pieces is fragmentation and there is no limit to how many times a file can be fragmented, meaning there could be hundreds if not thousands of pieces of a single file strewn across the hard drive. Every time that file is recalled it requires the hard drive to find all of those pieces, put them together, and then deliver them to the screen- a lengthy process as well as a heavy burden.
Fragmentation slows down the process of every action, regardless of what file you are trying to open, software you are trying to share, communication you are trying to send, etc. As a result a website takes a hit because it no longer has a reliable source for its operational needs. This becomes evident in a website’s speed as pages take longer to load, images may be missing, error pages may pop up; the list of problems is endless. This is all because fragmentation has not been addressed.
It doesn’t have to get this bad though and preventing such a mess is probably one of the easiest things a business can do. Companies like Diskeeper have developed defragmentation software that not only repairs fragmented files, reversing the damage caused by the disease, but also safeguards against future fragmentation.
Defragmentation software offers you the ability to restore the health of your computer network system, returning it its optimal speed and reliability and in turn improving the functionality of your website. With the holiday season now in high gear there really is little time for a business to wait, it’s evident that consumers are turning to the Internet for their shopping needs, now businesses need to turn to defragmentation software to facilitate those online shoppers.