Atea recommends Dell PowerEdge servers for manufacturers' IT upgrades

Atea, one of the largest IT infrastructure suppliers in Northern Europe and the Baltic states, is advising companies, especially in manufacturing, to renew their server infrastructure with PowerEdge servers from US technology company Dell Technologies. Atea is a Dell Technologies Titanium Black-level partner, and its case rests on rapidly growing data volumes and the risks of ageing equipment.

Data volumes and downtime risks

Atea explains that IT infrastructure keeps company systems running: production planning, warehouse records, equipment monitoring and data analysis. According to Dell Technologies' Global Data Protection study, organisations now manage ten times more data than five years ago, which raises demand for both storage space and server capacity. In manufacturing, data analysis helps spot problems early; for example, equipment readings can signal a need for maintenance before a fault causes unplanned downtime.

A survey by MeriTalk and Dell Technologies covered more than 150 data centre decision-makers at growing manufacturing companies. Of them, 92% had lost revenue over the previous year because of data centre downtime, and 65% said outdated infrastructure hinders modern services and obstructs the introduction of new solutions.

What Atea recommends

Companies should assess which IT systems need renewing, and what server capacity and storage they will need going forward. The Dell Modern Data Center portfolio combines computing, storage and infrastructure management products. The PowerEdge line offers servers for different workloads, from everyday applications to more demanding data processing, including planning systems, analytics applications and virtualised environments. Servers can also be planned for artificial intelligence workloads.

Management is handled by Dell OpenManage tools, which centralise and automate tasks. A study commissioned by Dell and carried out by Principled Technologies found that some routine tasks took 85% less time with OpenManage than when done manually; actual savings depend on the infrastructure and tasks. PowerEdge servers have security features built in at hardware and firmware level.

Atea notes that when choosing servers, companies should weigh not only power but also ease of management and fit with their security setup. Further information is available from Atea Latvia.