Johannesburg, 11 Sep 2020
There can be no doubt that the world has undergone a radical shift over the past few months, as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has steamrollered the traditional approaches to how people work. Lockdowns across the globe have led to the realisation that businesses can no longer rely on stationary devices like desktop computers, as a growing number of employees have needed the mobility to work from anywhere under these trying conditions.
With this in mind, HP has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of the trends, challenges and performance issues impacting on mobile computing. This, in turn, has led to the understanding that the device’s performance can deliver a significant business advantage; after all, providing the best-fit device to each employee will enable them to work much more effectively.
This understanding can be clearly seen in the company’s ZBook 17 laptops, explains Elmari Keyser, End User Computing Manager for Datacentrix. She says this device was built with performance on the go in mind. It offers the ability to edit numerous content streams and to develop in virtual reality (VR), it utilises multiple improved processors and provides a large screen to deliver a similar experience to utilising a desktop.
“The ZBook 17 is well-suited to those industries that require fast, high performance capabilities and which tend to have demanding and extensive workloads. These sectors would include media and entertainment, oil and gas, agriculture, healthcare, mining and big finance, to name a few. Essentially, it has been designed as a fit-for-purpose device for anyone working with complex data,” she says.
“The importance of a fit-for-purpose computer is that – although it may be a bit more costly than its contemporaries – its rivals are not designed for the intensive workloads faced in the business environment. Moreover, people who use the right device for the right job inevitably have a happier experience, which leads directly to improved productivity.”
Keyser adds that many users, particularly those of the millennial generation, expect a device that is not only performance-driven and which can be taken anywhere, but which is also “fashionable and sexy”.
“Therefore, when HP designs these devices, it does so with the end-users, those that want a device that is essentially an extension of themselves, in mind. These are users who understand the importance of performance, and who also realise that the device’s performance directly impacts their own.
“What sets the ZBook 17 apart is that, besides looking very stylish, it has proved to be ideal for modern fields like data science, thanks to its ability to effectively manipulate complex data. By making the editing of content easier and enabling VR, it also opens up new avenues of development for the user.”
Perhaps best of all, she continues, the device is particularly scalable, meaning that although the initial outlay may appear costly, it is capable of being upgraded well beyond the accepted standard three-year life span for laptops.
“As an HP Platinum Partner, Datacentrix is well-positioned to assist our customers with any and all such upgrades. In fact, thanks to the company’s long-standing relationship with HP, Datacentrix is capable of managing the entire life cycle of the device – from configuration and delivery to the proactive management of the device itself.
“HP, of course, is one of the most famous brands in the world, and as such remains a trusted provider of hardware of this nature. As part of that trust, the company recognises that in the end, every endpoint device purchase is ultimately a security one, and it is for this reason that some critical security measures are baked into the design.”
Keyser points out that these security measures include HP Sure Start, which is hardware-enforced, self-healing protection that automatically recovers critical firmware; HP Sure Run, which keeps critical applications and processes running with self-healing protection; and HP Sure Recover, which is designed to quickly and securely restore the device to the latest image, using a network connection.
“There is no doubt that we have seen a significant shift from desktop environments to mobile devices. What the ZBook 17 offers users is the best possible workstation experience on a mobile form factor. In other words, it delivers all the standard features of a mobile device, but with the largest possible screen configuration, to make it feel just like a desktop.
“The HP ZBook 17, delivered by Datacentrix, is designed for use on specific tasks and by an organisation’s top performers – those people working on big projects where time really is money. Therefore, while it is a laptop that won’t necessarily fit all budgets, those businesses that regularly work with complex data will understand its benefits. On the other hand, those that try to save costs at the start will soon discover that a failure to invest in the right device, one which matches the required workload, will rapidly lead to a morass of deeper and longer term costs,” she concludes.
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