As a PC enthusiast first, news of new hardware pleases. There’s nothing better than hearing that you can finally play your games and view your spreadsheets in true 4K, 144hz display. As an IT professional second, however, you’re probably looking at the equipment you will soon have to fix.
This is why certifications like the 220-901 are at a premium when looking for higher salaries and wide-ranging work as an IT worker. It opens opportunities for you, but more importantly, it confirms your capabilities to solve hardware issues in any situation. It will also refresh your memory on some old-school repairs for legacy features, a situation that seems to confuse younger IT fellows. It’s almost certain that several workplaces still use old workstations, so it’s better to be ready.
SATA Storage Way Past Its Saturation Point, Shift to PCIe
The price drops on SSDs is welcome news to everyone, from individual users to enterprises, because it gives them an opportunity to equip faster storage and RAID setups. In the big picture, though, it’s a bottleneck in the growth of storage technology. But, according to this year’s CES, manufacturers may have smashed that barrier and proceeded to storage’s next logical destination: PCIe lanes.
For IT professionals, this will be the biggest hardware challenge yet. From the start, SATA connections fed storages and disc bays link-up with disk controllers. Shifting to a direct configuration with the motherboard is a big change, and though it’s not news anymore, this year poses a more widespread integration. Expect NVMe PCIe storages on a few X99 and C600 workstations, where they are necessary and performs at maximum speed.
IoT and Other Networking Concerns
Safety is a priority in IoT (Internet of Things) configurations and the Box V2 from antivirus company Bitdefender is everyone’s best (read: easiest) shot at a more secure setup. It’s not a long shot to prepare to install this product if your office takes advantage of IoT equipment.
Speaking of networking, there are fresh trends that will test your skills. One: do you adopt an SDN network for the office? What are the advantages? Two: what Wi-Fi mesh system will ensure no dead spots in the office? Third: how to finally make the network printer work?
This is the tip of the computer hardware mountain for IT professionals. For your sake, and your employer as well, it’s important to get the necessary education and testing to prove that you’re capable of delivering quality hardware solutions.