When to start planning for a business server refresh?
Industry standard server replacement is 3 to 5 years. We at CPU begin the refresh discussion at the 4-year mark to plan for the capital expenditures and server project.
Why can't I let my server run for 6 years or even longer?
Servers run 24x7x365 days a year, and just like your car, parts overheat, wear out, slow down, fail, and ultimately need to be replaced. Old servers have a greater chance to cause interruptions to your business and loss in revenues. After 5 years, you will be facing diminishing returns. Why keep investing time and money in maintaining an old server that may no longer be keeping up with your business needs.
The challenge is to make the decision to refresh before it is too late. We often we see businesses stay with their old server way past its life expectancy. The server eventually crashes, throwing everyone into fire drill mode. Work grinds to a halt, mission critical applications are not available; Email may be down; sales stop; invoicing stops; work orders stop, and yet you still must pay your staff, whose productivity is basically zero. A new server is rush ordered, costing more money for both the server and the express delivery. Install of the server is done as fast as possible, often requiring techs to work after hours and over a weekend, thus increasing the labor costs dramatically.
The bottom line is that a crashed server can cause major damage to your business. And we are not talking hours, but possibly days of downtime. And you had better hope you have a solid recent backup, or your business could really in trouble. Expediting the project with data recovery could cost an additional 25% to 40%.
This is a dramatic no-win scenario every business can and should avoid with proper planning and guidance.
The Right Approach?
The right approach is to properly plan for your server refresh. And that starts by taking a fresh look at your business requirements and asking a lot of business and technical questions including:
- Are your core applications still the best option for your business?
- Are there software upgrades or new versions of your applications?
- Are your core applications provided in a cloud environment (i.e. Software as a Service)?
- What other core applications make sense to move to the cloud (i.e. email, file share)?
- Can you move to a virtualized environment instead of using dedicated servers?
- How much disk space is the company using today?
- How much will your data grow in the next 5 years?
- Is your firewall up-to-date or is at end-of-life?
- Is your data backup working properly?
- Are there more cost-efficient options available for both on-site and off-site backups?
- Do all or some of your staff need remote access?
- Do you need to replace any old workstations?
- Should you upgrade any workstations to Windows 10?
These are a few of the important "server refresh" questions that need answers. And to answer them properly it takes time and planning. Meetings must take place, software vendors need to be involved, server configurations need to be explored, and pricing options need careful consideration. These are important parts of the process that get thrown out the window if your old server crashes and causes a fire drill.
A planned refresh will save you a lot of money (and a lot of headaches) while also improving your day-to-day operational performance with a high-level of business continuity. So, avoid the fire drill -- when your server turns 4 years old start planning for a refresh to your server environment. You will be glad you did.