Summer is here, and it is time to get outdoors. And if you are like most of us, you will be wanting to take your technology with you when you go. But how do you keep it safe? So much of our outdoor equipment is specifically designed to endure the punishment of the outdoors but what about our tech?
Many of us here at IT Radix love to hit the trails on our bikes when the weather gets warmer. However, when we hit the trail on today’s mountain bikes, they bare little resemblance to the Huffy bicycles back in our younger days. Today’s mountain bikes have shocks, springs and titanium components all to help survive the rigors of a mountain trail. Now, just because our Huffy bicycles don’t have all of these “ruggedized” components doesn’t mean that we can’t hit the trail on these too. It just means that we might need to take a few more precautions to ensure these vintage bikes survive the trip. The same can be true for our technology.
There are certainly “ruggedized” technology, laptops and tablets and such all specifically designed to endure their specific environments—the high heat of a factory floor or the drops and bangs of a power company linemen. Most of us don’t really need these specialized pieces of equipment, but we still need to keep our equipment in one piece when we hit the trail. So, what to do?
Withstand the rigors of mobility with a solid-state disk (SSD)
Well, fortunately, there are some things we can do to ensure our tech stays safe as we head outdoors. Let’s start with what is likely your largest and most expensive pieces of equipment…your laptop. One of the best things you can do to help your laptop survive the rigors of mobility is to replace the standard hard disk drive with a solid-state disk (SSD). These drives not only offer a significant performance boost to your laptop, but they are also much more rugged than their traditional counterparts as they have no moving parts to get bounced around and are less likely to be damaged if they are dropped or bumped. Additionally, if you are going to hit the trails with your laptop this summer, please don’t forget to put it in a suitable case or bag as well. The newer backpack style laptop cases not only offer great protection for your investment, they also allow you to stay mobile and active.
When it comes to your smaller pieces of tech, tablets and phones, there are a lot of great options here too. The simplest is a screen protector. I see so many people today using phones with broken screens; it’s kind of sad. This can easily be avoided with a $5 screen protector. Once attached, if your phone or tablet does take a dive, the screen protector may get damaged, but it will save the screen. The screen protector can be replaced easily and inexpensively. When it comes to smaller tech, let’s not forget to put them in a case. There are so many options here, we’re sure there is something to fit your lifestyle and activity level—slim cases that will still let you slip you phone in your pocket to fully-armored and waterproof options that might add some size and weight to your device but will keep it save under most conditions.
Many of the items mentioned are readily available at your favorite retailer.
Contact IT Radix here for additional tips on protecting your valuable tech investment. We’re here to make IT work for you no matter what the terrain!
First published in our July 2019 IT Radix Resource newsletter
