Computing technology has always striven for the “totally automatic.” It certainly wasn’t always so; just look at the level of technical skill it once took to simply operate a computer. The first systems took MIT grads to simply turn them on and get answers to equations. Down through the years, they became easier to operate and required less skill, until we finally reached the PC that anyone could run.
The goal of “fully automatic” could also be said for all the various factors that go into system administration. Except for putting the physical hardware there at a desk, a new user’s desktop can now be completely set up remotely. Network loads and traffic flows can be adjusted automatically. Entire servers (virtual) can be automatically set up and run. And now, finally, the defragmentation chore can be set up to run fully automatically, and pesky file fragmentation won’t bother anyone ever again.
But wait: if you think that claim is being made about low cost or free fragmentation solutions, think again. They must be scheduled, which means use of valuable IT hours. It also means that there are many times that defragmentation is not occurring, and performance-crippling fragmentation is continuing to impact company productivity.
There are many other drawbacks to such solutions as well, especially when compared to a state-of-the-art fully automatic solution. Some require 15 to 20 percent free space in order to defragment. Many only defragments files, instead of both files and free space. In many cases, only one instance of the built-in can be run at a time.
Additionally, some have no method of reporting on defrag results or even defrag status as they operate, leaving IT personnel in the dark. Some allow no defragmentation of system and metadata files, nor exclusion of any files from defrag. They are generally “one size fits all,” addressing all types of fragmentation and sizes of drives with one defrag method.
A true fully automatic solution requires no scheduling and is always addressing fragmentation invisibly, using only otherwise-idle resources so that there is never a negative performance impact—only the positive one. The automatic solution addresses both files and free space, and only requires 1 percent free space. It tackles drives and partitions simultaneously, instead of one at a time, and also positions frequently used files for faster access. The automatic solution fully reports on defrag status and results.
Today there is even technology for preventing a majority of fragmentation before it even occurs.
The entire point of technology, going all the way back to the origin of computing, is to decrease workload. Only the fully automatic fragmentation solution accomplishes that mandate. Make sure your fragmentation chores are addressed with the invisible background technology available today, actually lowering unnecessary IT tasks and increasing IT efficiency.
Showing posts with label free defrag utility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free defrag utility. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Right Defrag Solution--More Cost Effective Than a Free Solution
A utility or function that is "free" should always be examined carefully. For example, an aspiring musician may go shopping for a keyboard and find one for a decent price that has a built-in "free" drum machine. On the surface, it sounds like a great deal; they can have rhythm accompaniment as they play and it's like having your own little band. But when they get the keyboard home and actually put this "free" drum machine to work, they find that it's very limited in the sounds it will produce and in fact makes their creations sound a bit cheesy. In order to make it sound halfway good, the drum sounds will have to be run through a separate amplifier. But then they find that they can't even run the drum machine out from the keyboard separately. After countless wasted hours and endless tweaking, the musician realizes that it would have taken far less money and time—and would have produced a better result—if he or she had just invested in a professional drum machine in the first place.
Moving over into the world of computers, one finds a similar scenario: that of a free defragmenter. Again on the surface it sounds ideal. There is no up-front cost, and it will take care of that performance-crippling fragmentation problem so IT can take their attention off of it and move onto other pressing matters.
But when the time comes to actually get the defragmentation work done, a realization will dawn upon the system administrator about how “free” this defrag solution isn’t. First it has to be scheduled, many times on systems that must remain up and running 24X7. Many IT hours can be wasted in trying to fit in such schedules. Users cannot be on the system when the free defrag is running, causing more lost time and worse, income. And in between these scheduled runs, fragmentation continues to build and impact performance and reliability, which lowers the cost-effectiveness of the entire enterprise.
Then even more problems arise. IT personnel can never tell if a disk is fully defragged because there is no progress chart in the UI. Only one instance of the defragger can be run at a time. Only local drives can be defragmented.
The only true defrag solution today is one that does not require scheduling and addresses fragmentation consistently in the background. Because only idle system resources are used, there is never a negative impact on users. Such a solution means that IT can remove their attention from fragmentation at the moment this solution is installed—performance and reliability are constantly maximized. When comparing such a solution to the free defragmenter, the actual and staggering costs of the "free" utility become readily apparent.
Moving over into the world of computers, one finds a similar scenario: that of a free defragmenter. Again on the surface it sounds ideal. There is no up-front cost, and it will take care of that performance-crippling fragmentation problem so IT can take their attention off of it and move onto other pressing matters.
But when the time comes to actually get the defragmentation work done, a realization will dawn upon the system administrator about how “free” this defrag solution isn’t. First it has to be scheduled, many times on systems that must remain up and running 24X7. Many IT hours can be wasted in trying to fit in such schedules. Users cannot be on the system when the free defrag is running, causing more lost time and worse, income. And in between these scheduled runs, fragmentation continues to build and impact performance and reliability, which lowers the cost-effectiveness of the entire enterprise.
Then even more problems arise. IT personnel can never tell if a disk is fully defragged because there is no progress chart in the UI. Only one instance of the defragger can be run at a time. Only local drives can be defragmented.
The only true defrag solution today is one that does not require scheduling and addresses fragmentation consistently in the background. Because only idle system resources are used, there is never a negative impact on users. Such a solution means that IT can remove their attention from fragmentation at the moment this solution is installed—performance and reliability are constantly maximized. When comparing such a solution to the free defragmenter, the actual and staggering costs of the "free" utility become readily apparent.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
When "Free" Actually Costs More
This might have happened to you: You’re off on a resort vacation that you’ve looked forward to for months, in some tropical paradise. You’re dreamily exploring the resort on the first day, and you come across a person who offers you a free champagne brunch, for you and your spouse. You think, great! A free high-end meal! When you get there, though, you realize how free it isn’t. The food is great—but you have to sit there for two hours listening to a sales pitch on condo timesharing. And for the rest of your vacation, some salesman is pursuing you all over the resort, popping up every time you turn around, trying to close you on buying into his "great plan." That "free brunch" was anything but—it put a serious damper in your dream vacation, which you paid substantial money to take.
In the world of computing, the same could be said for a free or inexpensive defrag utility. Yes, it costs little to nothing at the outset—but defragmentation is a serious performance problem, and soon you’re going to have to run that utility. The first problem you’re going to have is, it needs to be scheduled. Most corporate systems need to be up and running constantly, so finding a time window in which to schedule defragmentation is a major problem. And, the time that the system is offline is the first major cost of the free or inexpensive utility.
When you finally can schedule and run it, you find out that it runs, and runs, and runs, consuming system resources the whole while, and never seems to actually complete a defrag job. If you add up the number of hours that IT staff have spent trying to get useful work out of this utility, you’ll come across the second major cost of this utility.
There are third-party solutions to fragmentation that are far more efficient. In fact, technology has now evolved to the point that a majority of fragmentation can actually be prevented before it even occurs—completely automatically, and with no impact on system resources. The I/O resources required to defragment files after they have already been fragmented are saved, and peak performance is constantly maintained.
Now, compare the price of the of the free or "low-cost" utility to the third-party solution. There is an initial cost for the third-party solution—but once it is installed and running, fragmentation is basically a thing of the past. The net result: the bargain utility actually costs far more.
In the world of computing, the same could be said for a free or inexpensive defrag utility. Yes, it costs little to nothing at the outset—but defragmentation is a serious performance problem, and soon you’re going to have to run that utility. The first problem you’re going to have is, it needs to be scheduled. Most corporate systems need to be up and running constantly, so finding a time window in which to schedule defragmentation is a major problem. And, the time that the system is offline is the first major cost of the free or inexpensive utility.
When you finally can schedule and run it, you find out that it runs, and runs, and runs, consuming system resources the whole while, and never seems to actually complete a defrag job. If you add up the number of hours that IT staff have spent trying to get useful work out of this utility, you’ll come across the second major cost of this utility.
There are third-party solutions to fragmentation that are far more efficient. In fact, technology has now evolved to the point that a majority of fragmentation can actually be prevented before it even occurs—completely automatically, and with no impact on system resources. The I/O resources required to defragment files after they have already been fragmented are saved, and peak performance is constantly maintained.
Now, compare the price of the of the free or "low-cost" utility to the third-party solution. There is an initial cost for the third-party solution—but once it is installed and running, fragmentation is basically a thing of the past. The net result: the bargain utility actually costs far more.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Yes, It’s Free—but Will It Do the Job?
If you ask anyone who writes advertising copy for a living, you’ll find that the word most responded to in promotional literature of any kind is the word “free.” Not surprising—who doesn’t want something useful without paying anything? The problem is that the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” usually applies.
One version of this is the “free trial.” Some trialware is full-featured and only has a time limit. In other cases, however, it is feature-hobbled and when you really need it to do the job, it won’t.
Another is simply “free software” which has been common throughout the history of the web. When you look at the functionality, however, you may find many things missing. An example would be word processing. A free word processor might be Notepad, found on all PCs. It’s fine if you’re simply writing text and don’t care about formatting, fonts or symbols, let alone spelling and grammar checking, or the ability to embed graphics and photos. For that functionality you would need to do what many do: pay for and turn to Microsoft Word.
A free virus checker would be another example. If it’s not trialware (which is probably going to have limited functionality anyway), then it most likely is not updated with all recent virus signatures and it may or may not protect your computer. For that, you’d need a professional robust application along with a subscription that always keeps it up to date and keeps your computer safe from malware attack.
The bottom line: in responding to any offer of something free, check the functionality. In most cases, you’ll find that it won’t do the job you need it to do.
In terms of functionality, a great case in point would be a free defragmenter. In looking over the features, you would most likely find that it either must be run manually or—at best—it needs to be scheduled. Most sites cannot afford to take a system down for maintenance to defragment its hard drives, as most must remain up and running pretty near constantly. The end result is that the enterprise’s computers will continue to suffer the performance-crippling effects of fragmentation, simply because defrag can be run so seldom.
The second problem would be the utility’s ability to actually defragment your drives. Does it have the needed technology to truly do the job? Many do not, especially with today’s much larger drives, enormous file sizes and sheer number of files. A defrag utility not up for the task will simply grind endlessly and never fully defragment. Once again, a company is saddled with fragmentation’s effects—despite the apparency of a “solution.”
The lesson to be learned is that “free” does not always mean “effective.” In fact, far from it. Before you decide a free utility is best, look closely at the features.
One version of this is the “free trial.” Some trialware is full-featured and only has a time limit. In other cases, however, it is feature-hobbled and when you really need it to do the job, it won’t.
Another is simply “free software” which has been common throughout the history of the web. When you look at the functionality, however, you may find many things missing. An example would be word processing. A free word processor might be Notepad, found on all PCs. It’s fine if you’re simply writing text and don’t care about formatting, fonts or symbols, let alone spelling and grammar checking, or the ability to embed graphics and photos. For that functionality you would need to do what many do: pay for and turn to Microsoft Word.
A free virus checker would be another example. If it’s not trialware (which is probably going to have limited functionality anyway), then it most likely is not updated with all recent virus signatures and it may or may not protect your computer. For that, you’d need a professional robust application along with a subscription that always keeps it up to date and keeps your computer safe from malware attack.
The bottom line: in responding to any offer of something free, check the functionality. In most cases, you’ll find that it won’t do the job you need it to do.
In terms of functionality, a great case in point would be a free defragmenter. In looking over the features, you would most likely find that it either must be run manually or—at best—it needs to be scheduled. Most sites cannot afford to take a system down for maintenance to defragment its hard drives, as most must remain up and running pretty near constantly. The end result is that the enterprise’s computers will continue to suffer the performance-crippling effects of fragmentation, simply because defrag can be run so seldom.
The second problem would be the utility’s ability to actually defragment your drives. Does it have the needed technology to truly do the job? Many do not, especially with today’s much larger drives, enormous file sizes and sheer number of files. A defrag utility not up for the task will simply grind endlessly and never fully defragment. Once again, a company is saddled with fragmentation’s effects—despite the apparency of a “solution.”
The lesson to be learned is that “free” does not always mean “effective.” In fact, far from it. Before you decide a free utility is best, look closely at the features.
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