Computers Made in the USA: Why Should It Matter to Non-USA Customers?

Graphic: Trenton Systems has customers around the world, so we feel it's important to explain what purchasing a truly made-in-USA computer means for their programs and applications.

What does "made by Trenton Systems in the USA" mean for non-USA customers?

Yes, Trenton Systems designs, manufactures, assembles, tests, and supports its motherboards in the USA to help ensure the security of its defense and aerospace customers' sensitive data, but why are made-in-USA motherboards important for sensitive, mission-critical applications anyway?

Here’s a common objection I hear when talking to prospects:

Why should I care whether my server or workstation is made in the USA, Taiwan, or China? Look, I’d love for the computers to be made in my home country - to create jobs and support the economy - but I can’t find them. So, if the computers do the job, why should I care where they’re made?

A common practice for most of Trenton Systems’ competitors is to perform mechanical integration and design the server or workstation chassis but buy commercial motherboards from third-party suppliers.

But a motherboard is the most critical component of a high-performance computer running sensitive, mission-critical applications; therefore, controlling its life cycle, revision, security technologies, and security practices – and thereby reducing stress for the customer long-term - is essential.

Here are two reasons why buying Trenton motherboards, which are manufactured proudly in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA, matters for your mission-critical program or application:

1. Life cycle control

• A change of motherboard may carry tremendous functional and financial consequences due to a change’s effects on the system’s software applications and the need for system requalification.
• Commercial motherboards have short life cycles, usually of about four years, compared to the decades-long life cycle of a Trenton motherboard.
• Even a simple revision may affect a software application. Commercial motherboards offer no revision control, unlike Trenton motherboards.

2. Security

• As exposed by Bloomberg, when using contractors who don't emphasize data security to build motherboards, the entire supply chain may become compromised, posing a significant security risk to your enterprise.
• When using third-party motherboards of questionable build, you may lose control of security, which could be catastrophic for your enterprise’s bottom line. When discussing with your customers the use of third-party motherboards, your only defense for the security of those motherboards becomes, “Well, we use a popular brand, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

At Trenton Systems, we not only have complete control over what we ship to our customers because we design, manufacture, assemble, test, and support our servers and workstations and their motherboards in-house, but our Counterfeit Protection Program (CPP), secure manufacturing facility, comprehensive revision control, ability to customize BIOS source code, holistic trusted computing methodology, and supply chain security procedures further ensure the security of your motherboard, and therefore, the sensitive data hosted by your mission-critical server or workstation.

“Made by Trenton Systems in the USA” really means, “We control the design, manufacture, assembly, testing, and support of the computers we ship to you; we use multiple avenues of protection to help ensure the security of your computing solution; we stand by our servers and workstations.”

Now that’s a story everyone, no matter their country of origin, can get behind.