8 Common Server Issues That Plague Businesses

Common Server Issues That Plague Businesses

Are you considering running a server for your business? Having a server can be very beneficial for your business. However, if you lack the necessary support, a lot of things could go wrong.

Many server issues plague businesses today. These issues often lead to slow loading speeds and crashed sites that result in loss of revenue. According to research, 53% of consumers only wait for 3 seconds for websites to load before moving to the next site.

Therefore, it’s vital to keep your servers running effectively to avoid losing potential buyers. Check out below the most common server issues faced by businesses today:

1. Slow Loading Speeds

Reduced site loading speed is one of the most common server issues facing e-commerce businesses.

Unfortunately, if your website’s loading speed is slow, most of your potential clients will purchase products from your competitors. Thanks to the stiff competition online, consumers are forced to choose sites with faster loading speeds.

Heavy images and large files on your website could lead to slow loading speeds. Unfortunately, clients will not wait for the image to load; they will leave your site and visit another website with better loading speeds. This leads to your website losing its ranking and a tarnished business reputation.

2. Viruses and Cyber Attacks

Some of the biggest threats to online businesses include viruses, malware, and cyber-attacks. These threats also affect company servers. Therefore, it’s essential to prevent hackers from penetrating your company’s servers, especially if you use one server to manage your employees and serve your clients.

Businesses selling products and services online are also at risk of data breaches. Cybercriminals take advantage of weaknesses in your system to steal client payment information and other personal data. They can use this information to steal money from the clients.

You want to ensure that your client’s data is secure, especially when doing financial transactions on your site. Hence, it’s vital to take steps to prevent attacks and stop them immediately they happen. You should also trust your customers to handle their own online purchases.

For example, some scammers may steal credit card information from your clients and use it to buy items online. Viruses are also a threat to your business server. That’s because they interrupt the normal functioning of your systems, leading to losses.

3. Power Outages

Power outages, blackouts, and fluctuations are very problematic to business servers. Fluctuations often happen due to poor electrical infrastructure in the server facility and severe climatic conditions.

Operating a server with power problems may lead to end-user issues such as increased workload at the business data center and reduced productivity. That’s because staff will troubleshoot the problems, resulting in heavy workloads. They may also start rebooting the server each time there is a power drop below the standard level.

4. Temperature and Dust Interference

The hardware used to house your server and all related components require regular maintenance for optimal performance. Some regular maintenance includes hardware protection from extreme temperature, moisture removal, and adequate cooling.

If your server room is too cold or too hot, the hardware will start malfunctioning. This may lead to system and website downtime. Similarly, too much moisture in the server room may result in some components of the hardware corroding. This creates an unsafe working condition for your employees as the hardware may lead to short-circuits and electrocution of nearby individuals.

5. Failure to Keep Up With Regular Updates

Over time, your servers’ performance may start degrading as the operating system and firmware become outdated. Legacy and old hardware may be the most challenging to upgrade as the vendors and manufacturers could seize pushing for updates due to age issues.

If your servers use outdated operating systems and firmware, they could develop performance problems. These often become more challenging problems such as bandwidth bottlenecks, poor database connection, and server crashes.

6. Hardware Configuration Problems

Hardware that’s constantly experiencing excessive vibration may strain to function optimally, resulting in server issues. This is common in incorrectly placed data centers, such as garages, near high-traffic roads or streets, or a construction site.

Unfortunately, even a poor choice of flooring may result in disk drive damage. This is because poor flooring transmits vibration and tremor from employees’ footsteps into the server room.

Inside the server room, you should also check for bad cabling. Tightly connected and bundled up cables may cause performance problems and device failures.

7. Server Crash

One of the most significant problems an eCommerce business could face is a complete server crash. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for servers to crash. A complete server crash may result from theft, fire, flooding, and a significant cyber-attack.

Crashed web services may also result in a server crash. If your service is down, your server may also go down with the web service. Recovering from a severe crash is very expensive and may lead to complete business failure and, ultimately, closure. It may cost your company thousands of dollars every day.

Unfortunately, once a server crashes, there is nothing you can do. However, it’s advisable to take care of your servers and protect them from cyber-attacks to prevent a complete crash.

8. Software and Hardware Failure

In most companies, software and hardware failure is a very common problem. Software programs may be corrupted while hardware tools malfunction. Software and hardware failure may result in server downtime.

In case of server downtime, ensure you contact your host server company to give you an effective solution as soon as possible. Otherwise, the downtime may result in a reduction in employee productivity and loss of potential customers.

Fixing server issues can be a tiresome task. Therefore, check out this guide on how to fix a server to make your work easier.

Now You Know the Different Server Issues Faced by Businesses

Technology is not perfect, and so are servers. Unfortunately, many e-commerce businesses today have faced one or more of the listed server issues above. However, with regular monitoring and maintenance, your servers will run optimally and reduce server downtimes.

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