After how many years should you replace your office hardware?
Replacing your hardware can be a tough call. The cost of replacing outdated tools is substantial, and management often uses it as a reason to delay upgrades. But you’re also paying a price by continuing to rely on those clunkers.
Hardware should be replaced after 4 – 5 years.
Costs of maintaining hardware for longer than 4 – 5 years begin to outweigh benefits of not replacing the hardware. Things over 5 years old begin to become active problems for doing business.
Hardware can also last for longer than 5 years and run just fine. It may even still be useful. This, however, should not be an expectation. Manufacturers aren’t building to a tolerance that supports this expectations and chances of failure go up as the system ages. The needs of software continue to advance and while a system may still be useful five+ years after it was built, it may no longer be useful for doing similar tasks with newer software.
For Servers, a 3 to 5-year plan is more often advisable.
Many of our customers purchase a new server at the 3-year mark because that’s when the warranty has expired. Extending the warranty can be somewhat expensive, and you may find that replacement parts are not easy to find even when under warranty beyond three years.
A server crash can bring a company to its knees, and that’s exactly the scenario you’re planning to avoid. Replacing a running server is always preferable to replacing one that’s crashed.
We know people that have also opted for replacing some parts of the hardware, but what started as a simple part upgrade turned into a much expensive experience.
Our recommendation is to always plan the End of Life. In this way you will know that in about 4-5 years you will need a good budget to replace the old. You will also avoid unpleasant surprises like a server crash.
