We recently had a Monday morning “before coffee call” from a local business owner. In the break and fix tech world Monday’s are always our most hectic and we welcome all potential challenges, especially those from prospective new clients. 30 seconds into our conversation I started to cancel all of my personal appointments for the day. What had happened? The business owner and his small IT infrastructure had been hit with the dreaded Crypto Virus! Their infrastructure was “everyone has full permissions on everything” and “put everything in one spot,” which left their productivity up the creek without a paddle. Now that everything was broken beyond repair, I had the perfect opportunity to advise him on the newly affordable solid state drives (SSD)! The market is at a place where there is no reason to use a hard drive (currently what the vast majority of computers are shipped with). Here is a great way to visually conceptualize how SSD drives can save your business a substantial amount of money. Breakdown Example Let’s take a simple small office scenario.
- They are 10 staff with computers
- Each staff works an average of 8 hours per day
- Staff is being paid $ 20 per hour and the minimum working days in 2015 are 250 days.
There are dozens of variables – but our educated guess is that the average time a person sits and waits for their computer to think each day is 5 minutes. For many of you, it could be 2 minutes, or it could be 10+ minutes. Of those 5 minutes, an SSD could save you 4 of those minutes. Quick Math: 4 minutes * 250 days = 1000 minutes (1000/60= 16.66 hours) – That is 16.66 hours a year lost per employee at minimum of productivity. Let’s take a closer look at that figure 16.66 hrs per year is spent per employee on waiting on their normal hard drives to process as compared to using SSD Drives. 16.66 hrs * $20 per hour = $333.20 per year. The labor cost in terms of cash lost based on an employee earning $20 per hour is a staggering $333.20. Imagine what 16 hours of extra work especially for a business that depends on billable labor hours to account for its own revenue translate to in terms of that business’s bottom line!! Think of the expenses that your business can cover with $333.20 of additional revenue each year. Maybe you can get that new copier or upgrade your yearly subscription on linkedin to help market your business! If your company has 10 employees “computers” as in our scenario above that would mean at the end of the year you would save $3,332, and to be honest, the number is probably higher. That is a noticeable amount that puts this chore on the radar of businesses who want to increase their bottom line, and reduce waiting anxiety in the process. If someone says to you in a year they will give you $3332 in your hand with no strings attached with no legal ramifications and will continue to give you that amount over the next 2 years would you refuse to take it? That is what you are doing not switching to SSD drives in the current market environment where the price point for these drives are the best they have ever been.
Cost of SSD DRIVES and Transition Cost Let’s consider the cost attached to transitioning your current Computer HDD to SSD drives, taking into considering that you’re current HDD are still in reasonable working condition where they can be cloned. A single SSD 850 EVO 2.5″ SATA III 250GB Drive will cost you $90. This will include tax andfree shipping to any location within the continent USA. $90 per drive * 10 computers = $900 Total cost of the acquisition of the SSD drives for 10 computers would be $900. Let’s consider the cost of installing the drives. Making the transfer should not take more than 30mins. Additionally, let’s tack on another 30 minutes per computer for all the surprises that will surely be encountered. Lets then use the rate of $85 per hour for the tech labor involved. 1 Hr per PC * 10 Computers * $85 = $850 Lets then cater for the 10 hours total of employee down time which will be $200 (20 per hour * 10). Keep in mind that most tech companies will either schedule this after business hours or during the employee lunch breaks. So this cost may not actually exist. The Total cost of Transition is as follows: Cost of Hardware = $900 Cost of Installation = $850 Employee downtime = $200 That is a total of $1,950.
It is important to remember that this $1,950 is a one off investment cost and with estimation that your SSD drives will function without issue for at least 3 years. This cost to transition will take around 7 months to show viability.
To sum it all up – if you switch from a HDD to a SSD you will have a reliable, faster working storage device which increasing productivity and reduces the headache, all while and putting money back into your pocket.
Can you afford not to switch to SSD?
If you think you are ready to upgrade to a Solid State Drive, contact us . We are happy to guide you through the process and recommending the best one for you.