You can't always just throw hardware at a problem. Who says there's a free slot on the board for another Gig of RAM? If not, you may need a new machine. Depending on where you work, that may not be a simple issue. It's almost certainly not going to impact just you and your time; it's going to take up the time of a whole host of other people.
If there's a new machine, someone in management has to approve funds for it. That means they have to defend that purchase to the shareholders, which means they have to write up a defense of the proposal. Someone in IT has to research the machine to buy, and the reasons for that particular choice. Someone has to cut a P.O. for the system, and someone in shipping and recieving has to get the machine, and send it to the appropriate location. Someone in accounting has to record the transaction. Some sysadmin then has to set the machine up, and clone the old OS. If the old OS can't address the memory space of the new machine, a new OS may be need to be installed. If so, then some or all of your development tools (including Perl XS modules) may need to be recompiled for the new architecture. Everyone in production support will have to be trained on what's installed on the new machine, and how to maintain it.
And then you can install your app, compile it, and see if it runs any faster.
To all do that, you'll need to get buy in from your own management (to approve your purchase), possibly Sr. management/Finance, depending on the costs involved, Production Support (to approve training new staff on the new machinne), the Systems Manager (to approve setting up a new machine in the server room -- may or may not be the guy in charge of Production Support), and you'll chew up some of their time talking to each one. Any one of them may be able to veto your purchase approval. It's now turned political. It's not so simple now, is it?
Suddenly, you end up embroiled in a maze of office politics, and what was a simple technical matter has become a major social issue; which it tends to be when managment hears the magic buzzword: "hardware". There's something about the word that business types instinctively don't like: it smacks of permanent investment in a quickly depreciating asset, and they don't like that combination. Getting hardware out of managment can be like pulling teeth.
So, by all means, if you can throw hardware at the problem, and pull it off, go for it. Most of the time, most places, you'll find that you can't, or if you can, it's certainly a lot more involved than just waltzing into the server room, powering down a production box, and slotting in a new stick of RAM, then going on your merry way. | [reply] |
