Thursday 19 November 2015

How Terminal Emulation Assists Easy Data Management

Just about every company will need terminal emulation at some point. Yours may not need it now, but as time goes on, the day will come when you need information that can only be accessed with an emulator. This software allows a computer to basically take on the functionality of an older version. Doing so makes it possible for the user to access data that would otherwise be impossible to find. If you’re not sold on the benefits of using this type of software, consider the following ways that it assists with making data management easier.

Obtain Data from Outdated Systems
This is the most obvious way a terminal emulator helps with data management. Right now, you could have all kinds of data out of reach because it was created with software you no longer used or stored on a platform that differs from the current one on your system.

Without an emulator, you’re basically without options. You simply have to find a workaround. The best solution would involve using a machine with the old operating system installed. This isn’t just extremely inconvenient though; it also isn’t very cost-effective and is sure to become a bottleneck sooner or later.

With terminal emulation, no data ever has to be out of reach. Whether its information from 10 years ago or 20, you can quickly retrieve whatever it is you need.


Access Multiple Terminals at Once

There’s far more these applications can do to assist with data management though. Over time, your company has probably—or will, someday—go through multiple platforms. This means that going back and grabbing the data you need could involve more than one system. If you tried using the aforementioned workaround, you’d be in for a huge challenge. It would take multiple computers, each with a specific operating system and then going between them to get the information you need or cross reference it as necessary.

Modern emulators can access as many terminals as you need all on the same computer. Usually, it just involves putting each one on separate tabs. Not only can you get all the info you need, then, you can do it from the screen all at once. This makes it extremely easy to cross reference data from one system against others.


Customize Your Queries

Another great benefit that comes with terminal emulation is that you can actually customize your searches to various degrees. For many companies, accessing old data means looking at screens that represent the info in the most rudimentary of ways. There may only be a few colors used for fonts on a black screen. Obviously, this can make data management a bit of a challenge, to say the least.
With the right software, though, you can control the font color, the character size, background and more. This makes it much easier to see the information you want, highlight it and otherwise keep track of the data. Never again suffer through old screens from outdated platforms when you need something.


Mobile Functionality

Like just about everything these days, terminal emulators have now gone mobile. You can now pull off emulation from just about anywhere in the world on your mobile device. This is a great way to make emulation possible for any work at home employees who may be working for your company. If you hire on a consultant or freelance professional from somewhere outside the office, mobile functionality means they can now benefit from easy data management. Next time you’re on a business trip and need to access information from yesteryear, the ability to do so will be at your fingertips.

Mobile functionality may not seem like the most important aspect to have as far as emulation is concerned, but it’s better to have the option there than wish it was possible.


Save Money

Data management can be a costly endeavor. Unfortunately, it’s one of those costs your company really can’t hope to avoid. You need to manage your data, so you better find room in your budget. With terminal emulation, you can at least save money on this essential process.

Like we brought up earlier, without an emulator, you’re looking at a lot of hardware in order to make sure vital data is never out of reach, to say nothing of how inconvenient that option would be. You’re also looking at the potential costs of losing that data if anything happens to your dedicated machines. Furthermore, added hardware always comes with extra costs. There’s the space you need, electricity, IT support and more.

In light of those added expenses, simply using emulation software should be a no-brainer. You don’t need any extra hardware and these platforms are designed to stay out of the way until you need them, so they won’t hurt your staff’s ability to use their current machines.


Limitless Scalability

No matter what kind of software we’re talking about, scalability always needs to be a concern. Today, your company may only have so much data to manage. A year from now, though, there’s going to be a lot more. Five years from now, your company’s collection of data will be expansive.
Obviously, managing this data efficiently is going to take a resource that can scale without difficulty. Keep in mind that a lot of companies increase their amount of data exponentially. This means scalability is necessary, but so is being able to scale at a moment’s notice to whatever size is needed.
Terminal emulation and scalability are virtually inseparable when you have the right software. No alternative solution is going to be able to keep up. Again, if you tried using hardware to manage your data, you can forget about easy scalability and forget about doing so without spending a lot of money in the process.

Data management needs to be a priority for every organization, no matter what industry they’re in. However, simple data management isn’t enough anymore. Instead, you need emulation software that will make it easy, cost-effective and scalable. Otherwise, your business will always be greatly limited in what information it can access and the benefits that could be derived from it.


Guest post blogger:

Mike Miranda writes about enterprise software and covers products offered by software companies like Rocket software about topics such as Terminal emulation, Enterprise Mobility and more.

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