IT departments in nearly every industry and field are challenged to do more with less and increase productivity, not cost. unfortunately, make ends meet Particularly when it comes to servers, there is a mindset that tries to artificially inflate IT spending.
Single Source IT found that the servers were robust during the first year of use, with only 5% of cases experiencing problems. This was often due to a minor misconfiguration. For the next two years, the hard drive remained reliable, and around the fourth year he began to have 11% concerns. It then became clear that the server needed to be replaced to keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.
When is the best time to upgrade your server?
In this case, your IT team is your best resource. Ask them if they need a server upgrade and listen to what they have to say. However, if you want a business case to justify your spending, consider the actual costs in the following situations:
The server is old and is no longer supported by the manufacturer.
One of the easiest ways to tell if it’s time to upgrade your server is if it’s out of warranty (or worse, no longer supported by the manufacturer). As it gets older, it becomes more prone to breakdowns. As servers get older, disk crashes, power overloads, and localized overheating become more common. If your manufacturer doesn’t support it, you’ll have to rely on traditional third-party support, which can quickly become very expensive.
Slow and unable to keep up with current traffic and demand
Degraded performance is a sure sign that your server needs upgrading in the future. The slower your app runs and the more frequently it crashes, the more you lose productivity.
Data loss or corruption occurs due to hardware failure
If you’re using an older server, it’s important to have a solid data backup and disaster recovery plan in place. However, hardware failures are never quick or easy to resolve. Even with a good backup solution, there will be significant downtime.
Security Risk – Current servers are vulnerable to attacks from hackers
One of the biggest reasons why regular server upgrades are the norm is because they dramatically improve the security of your data. For example, if you’re running Windows Server 2003, you haven’t received any security patches in a while. Upgrading ensures that you receive timely security updates and that security flaws are fixed as they are discovered by the community.
Maintenance and repairs are becoming increasingly expensive and time-consuming
The longer you postpone upgrading your server infrastructure, the more maintenance costs will increase. You can also start experiencing unplanned downtime, which can disrupt your entire operation. Older equipment has a law of diminishing returns, and servers follow it fairly predictably.
You need more storage space for your growing business or dataset
This is easy. If your server can’t physically accommodate the data you need to store, or can’t handle the throughput you need to provide, you already know the solution.
How often should I upgrade my servers?
If you don’t want to wait until the last minute to upgrade your server, and you definitely shouldn’t, a good rule of thumb is to upgrade every four years. Upgrading to a decent model should cover his needs for at least three years. However, even the highest quality products usually fall apart after five years.
The importance of upgrading your server
Eventually the old server becomes economically unfeasible to maintain and must be replaced. However, you won’t save money or time by postponing that date as much as possible. By the time you regularly deal with the inconveniences of aging servers, it’s very likely that you’re already past the point where the total cost of ownership of a new server is less than the total cost of maintaining your existing equipment. Why spend a lot of money to maintain poor performance?
Things to consider before upgrading your server
That being said, don’t just throw money at the problem. Please take the time to learn what it takes to upgrade your server. Learn which options are definitely useful and which are completely useless. Also, take the time to investigate fundamental changes to server architecture and location. For example, have you considered a dedicated cloud server? If you don’t have the in-house expertise, Liquid Web would be happy to help.
Benefits of upgrading your server
Paradoxically, the most obvious benefits of server upgrades are the ones that users least notice. That way you know the app is working. You’ll no longer notice your team complaining about slow app performance. Your servers won’t go down or behave significantly abnormally during peak demand. You won’t get paid for overtime as your IT team will be scrambling to get your servers up and running again before the next day’s work begins. A new server with all the necessary capacity is, of course, almost invisible.
How to upgrade your server
This means you have the option of developing the necessary server upgrades and maintenance in-house or leveraging an organization like Liquid Web to manage the upgrades for you. One option is much easier and cheaper than the other.
final thoughts
We hope this article has inspired you to consider the cost of maintaining older servers and the business case for planned upgrades before an emergency upgrade becomes necessary. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If you need help or advice on upgrading your servers or other critical IT infrastructure, contact Liquid Web. One of The Most Helpful Human In Hosting® will be happy to assist you.
