Smart City

Smart City Sentinel

Network Server Supply Chain Nearing Crisis in COVID-19 Conditions

By Ken Briodagh

The Covid-19 pandemic reportedly has compromised the production and distribution of hardware needed to sustain the server supply chain by forcing a temporary shut down on some of the largest manufacturers based in China. This has resulted in a rapidly growing demand, which can be hardly sufficed by the current stock supply, leaving companies unable to scale their business, according to Heficed, an infrastructure provider. When the pandemic escalated, most of the factories shut down in an attempt to prevent further transmission of the disease.

Heficed reports that the scarcity of network servers is felt on a global scale. “The sudden stop of operations in China had a drastic effect on the industry, immensely limiting the available hardware supply,” said Vincentas Grinius, CEO, Heficed. “We usually stock up for at least a few months in advance, which proved to be a vital decision, which allows us to maintain our operations on a pre-virus capacity. Other hosting providers aren’t so lucky, as most of the storage facilities have been emptied clean, so you can’t simply stock up on required resources.”

Although the US government had not restricted global trade, according to Grinius, delivery companies either doubled the price or stopped such shipments entirely, creating more supply problems.

“Delivery is no longer a rational choice. Prices for shipping rose from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars: if you would compare it to our previous delivery expenses, costs jumped by at least a 150 percent,” said Grinius.
 

The interruption in the network infrastructure supply affects all members of the business chain, he went on. Hosting companies will be forced to hold back their operations; the lack of technical capacity to onboard new clients will render them unable to unlock potential revenue sources. Consequently, Grinius said, it will impair the quality of service for the end-user: each client’s data will have to share the same servers, which, without the possibility to upgrade, may lead to a lag in information processing.

Current events raised the demand for solutions, enabling remote work: conference calls, secure VPNs and remote desktops. The sudden surge of remote workers put a tremendous strain on the internet, and, based on how the events are unfolding, we will not see a decreasing trend anytime soon. However, the pressure on the network can be lessened by utilizing the IP address market.

The partial collapse of the server supply chain will greatly affect further developments in the industry. Some businesses, especially SMEs, may fall victim to unpreparedness and lose their place in the market. It will all come down to the company’s ability to assemble the required resources and adapt to the new market conditions.


Ken Briodagh is a storyteller, writer and editor with about two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.

Edited by Ken Briodagh
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

Editorial Director

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Smart Cities Must Be Safe Cities: Securing Edge Devices and the Data Collected

By: Reece Loftus    4/17/2025

Smart City deployments must secure resource-constrained devices that power public transportation, safety, and service systems, as well as other IoT ap…

Read More

Healthcare from the Comfort of Home: Learn How Technologies are Connecting Patients and Enhancing Care at the Smart City Event 2025

By: Alex Passett    2/12/2025

The Smart City Event is in full swing. It runs through Thursday, February 13 as part of the overall #TECHSUPERSHOW experience. Yesterday, our team joi…

Read More

IoT Applications with 'Wow' Factor: iWOW Technology Leverages LoRa with Semtech

By: Alex Passett    1/8/2025

Semtech announced earlier this week that iWOW Technology, a provider of end-to-end wireless IoT solutions, has been leveraging Semtech's LoRa technolo…

Read More

What's Happening at the Smart City Event in 2025?

By: Carl Ford    12/30/2024

The annual Smart City Event will be taking place from February 11-13, 2025, and plenty of accessibility and safety-focused topics will be covered for …

Read More

A Sensible 'Green' Acquisition for Future Smart Building Developments: Trane Technologies to Acquire BrainBox AI

By: Alex Passett    12/24/2024

Trane Technologies recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire BrainBox AI, as both companies are on a mission to make modern buildings smarter …

Read More