Computer Refresh Exactly Why Should I do that?
From the Arnold Consulting Files:
Not long ago, I got this new customer, and I am always thankful to get them, a tool and die shop. When I went to do the site survey, I noticed he had Servers running windows 2003, and they were from that time era, running the mail and file services. When I bent down to get a better look, I heard a dreaded sound. It was the faint sound of metal scraping metal more specifically the bearings on the mechanical hard drives were wearing out and causing friction and producing a low-pitched whine.
I advised the customer this machine should be backed up and replaced ASAP, otherwise you will lose the mail server. The customer said it had been doing that for years and was not worried. Well over the next few days the sound got louder. The customer finally agreed to have the machine backed up, but it was too late. The drive had taken too much damage and the backup program could not complete due to corrupted sectors.
The server did fail and the customer lost the mail. In between calling the new vendor, resetting MX records, setting up new mail clients, and transferring old mail to new mail client, and then new mail client uploading to new hosted service, it took about 15-man hours to bring it fully back on line.
So, this is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. The mail server was in such bad shape that even the mirror drive failed, and that was probably some years ago. All the server was working on was the redundant drive until it failed. When I opened up the server to get a better look, the capacitors were bulging and some were possibly leaking – really not good. If the drives did not fail, eventually the motherboard on the server would have.
Hardware Refresh:
Hardware refresh is the idea that instead of using to failure, the server or workstation equipment is replaced before it reaches extinction. This is especially important if the equipment is relied for the, “I have to have it work”, or “I Can’t be down.” All things fail it is just a matter of when.
This company used the server to failure and they let the server plan the replacement instead of the timely replacement by professional IT staff.
So, the “Why exactly should I do this,” it is pretty obvious, and it’s not your IT guy trying to make a sale, or build his kingdom on your dime. If he / she says replace it, think seriously about doing it. They are trying to save you from the fire drill laid out in the above case file.
Over the years, I have thought about this, and I always thought that you should do hardware replacement in year 5 or 6. I thought this because, when you by something new, it usually doesn’t fail except for out of box or in about that one-year time frame. If the product makes it past that, then it is usually pretty smooth performance until that computer hits the 5 to 6 year mark that’s when you see failure start to rise again.
BackBlaze Hard Drive General Predicted Failure Rate:
I found this article authored by BackBlaze. BackBlaze is a cloud storage backup facility, and they use a lot of hard drives. I came across the idea of the bathtub curve – read more at this link below. It occurred to me after reading the article this is applicable to hardware refresh time frames.
It makes lots of sense
In the beginning, computer failure is high and over time the curve smooths out. When the curve smooths out, it is essentially saying if it has not failed by now it probably will not. However, the most interesting part of the curve is toward the end of life, over time. The curve goes up exponentially and is suggesting that overtime the computer increases the likely hood of failure daily – living on borrowed time. Looking at the blue curve line.
In my business model, I have always had my customers replace critical hardware in the 5, 6, 7-year time frame, servers are always 5 to 6 years, and by doing this I have not had a hardware failure in 20 years of doing IT, knock on wood. The BackBlaze guys confirmed this with their hard drive analysis and applying it to equipment refresh makes sense and has been proved out in my business.
Desktop workstations I Don’t Care:
It is reasonable to use a non-critical resource to extinction, however if you need the system to perform and you can not be down, then think about proactive replacement.
Arnold Consulting – A little about myself:
I have an MCSA Certification from Microsoft, Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, as well as an MMIS, Master of Management Information Systems. Twenty years of experience working as an IT admin and network manager, and Arnold Consulting started in 2004.
I have built my companies consulting practice on being proactive rather than reactive, and take the classical design perspective, using the “fewest moving parts.” The result is a more robust network that is fault tolerant. If that failure does happen, our backup strategies can have you up and running in as little as 15 minutes if that is what your company needs.
As an owner, you may be thinking, “I can’t afford that”. Our hourly pricing is reasonable, and workstation backup on site starts at $180.00 flat fee per year. That is $15.00 a month – really! Call us for our hourly rate. During the pandemic, we have rolled it back for the next few months.
Arnold Consulting has managed antivirus, with priority support from the vendor, and Full desktop encryption services available optional file and folder as well. We also do custom build computers that are ultra reliable and the pricing is about 10% – 12% less than big box retailers. The specs are not built to a price point but rather what is really needed to make Windows function like it should.
We specialize in small to medium sized business and are grateful when we get a new customer.
Call us and have us come in for a no charge 1 hour on site audit. It does not cost your company any thing to talk to us, and as a result of the audit, we may get your company running a little more smoothly.
See our specials on our web page
Take a look at the blog page – There might be some ideas for your business we can help you with
Sincerely,
Rick Arnold – Arnold Consulting