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Server performance comes down to one thing: How fast can the drives deliver data? No matter how much you spend on multiple processors and additional memory, that investment is wasted if the hard drive can't deliver data in a timely manner. Even high-end RAID controllers and Storage Area Networks can't overcome the effects of fragmentation: If the operating system breaks the file up, then your disk array will store it accordingly. The only way to keep files contiguous so they can be accessed quickly is with routine defragmentation.
This problem cannot be solved manually; after all, what organization can afford the hours of downtime it would take to defragment each server daily, let alone enterprise-level servers? Infrequent defragmentation is no better: Fragmentation builds exponentially, and every day sees a decrease in performance and an increase in the likelihood of fragmentation-related downtime. Automatic defragmentation is the only solution
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