Workstations have become critical business tools in today’s workplace and are designed for everything from financial services workloads and scientific analysis to professional photo and video editing, to high-tech graphics and 3D rendering and post-production work used in Hollywood movies today.

According to Lizelle Le Roux, business unit manager: product, at South Africa’s leading ICT distributor, Tarsus, in essence, a workstation is a high-powered PC that is used by financial wizards, engineers, photographers, scientists, doctors and a slew of other creative professionals.

“They are used to design aeroplanes and spacecraft, run medical equipment, make movies, produce magazines and newspapers, and so much more,” she explains. “The bottom line is that system crashes, component breakdowns and sluggish performance can make work grind to a halt and cost the company in lost productivity, which can be prohibitively expensive.”

She says for any professional user who needs to make every second count, productivity loss of this nature is not acceptable. In today’s fast-paced world, system reliability is a non-negotiable, which is why HP has designed its workstations to meet the needs of even the most demanding workloads and duty cycles, something that has been a core focus for the company for the last three decades.

“These 30 years of workstation engineering innovation have created the HP Z series of workstations and laptops, that boast a level of reliability that is widely recognised in the industry as being best in class.”

She says there are several steps HP takes to make the Z series the most reliable and fastest machines on the market.

Heavy duty

Designers, for example, need a lot of RAM and processing power to handle their performance requirements. 3D artists, CAD users, and digital engineers are entirely dependent on technology, and HP’s Z series introduced heavy-duty processors, high RAM loadouts, amazing graphics configurations, as well as other features that power players need to do their jobs effectively.

For more information, please reach out to the Tarsus HP team

“Today’s specialists who need a lightning-fast machine need look no further now, and with high-end gaming, augmented and virtual reality becoming mainstream, the need for powerful workstations is more relevant than ever. Ask anyone with a standard desktop or laptop who has tried to handle workloads of this nature, and they’ll tell you.”

In fact, Le Roux says nothing impedes the creative process more than a machine that is low powered or one that doesn’t function adequately. It is impossible to get video processed and completed in full high definition with a standard laptop or desktop. There’s no doubt the Z series fulfils a critical need, both at the desktop and mobile level.”

HP Z-series workstations, she says, promise industry-leading performance with enterprise-class reliability and ISV certification that guarantees compatibility with all the top software manufacturers across the fields of design, science, finance and geology. “They are designed for complex modelling, pre- and post-production, architecture, engineering, geology and finance applications that require stable and reliable performance for complex datasets in mind.”

She says HP designs its Z systems based on specific workstation application demands, a thorough and rigorous customer use model and a five-year design standard. “HPs round-the-clock design standard decides the types of components the company uses, as well as the types of testing HP employs.

“The Z series machines were designed and built for mission-critical workloads and environments that are always on. With this in mind, they use several of the same types of components that servers employ, including Intel Xeon processors, error correcting code (ECC) memory, and enterprise-class storage technologies.”

HP’s intense focus on quality and reliability gives its users total peace of mind when it comes to running their professional applications

She says even the tiniest and most commonplace electronic components, such as resistors and capacitors, are carefully selected based on their quality, reliability and performance.

However, HP understands that system reliability cannot happen just by throwing components together, even if each component is the best that money can buy, she explains. “There has to be an iterative test-analyse-fix process, and HP’s current platforms undergo more than 120 000 hours of extensive testing and validation for laptops and a staggering 360 000 hours of testing and validation for desktops. These tests include functional, electromagnetic, shock, vibration, acoustics, temperature, humidity, environmental compliance, as well as compatibility and integration.

HP works with the top independent software vendors through its Application Competency Centers, which she describes as virtual teams that more often than not include an HP engineer that resides on the ISV’s site. These engineers test and certify all workstations to guarantee total solution quality.

Peace of mind

At the end of the day, HP’s intense focus on quality and reliability gives its users total peace of mind when it comes to running their professional applications on any Z-series HP workstation. “They can rest assured that they have a system that was designed, tested, and trusted for the work they do.”

However, she issues a caveat: “When it comes to buying a workstation, don’t fall into the trap of going in blind, because you will run the risk of missing out on the features your organisation might really need, or alternatively, pay extra for features that will never be used.”

Le Roux says having a technology partner like any one of Tarsus’s renowned resellers can prove invaluable as they have the knowledge and expertise to point you in the right direction and ensure you have a solution that meets all your needs and budget.

“Remember, your workstation’s design goes much further than its a cool-looking design, and excellent graphics. You also need to decide how each option fits in with your workplace. Talking to an expert can help you avoid making costly mistakes,” she stresses.

For more information, please reach out to the Tarsus HP team.