Any IT professional will tell you that your computer server’s life span average is three to five years, depending on the tasks you put it up to. After that time frame is up– it could start to cost you.

Here’s a good rule of thumb. If your computer server isn’t working as reliably (keeps crashing) or efficiently as it used to, and its replacement parts aren’t readily available. It’s outdated. When the cost of maintenance and downtime outweighs the cost of replacing your computer server, it’s time to replace your equipment.

Ask Yourself: Just How Slow Is Too Slow?

How slow is no-longer-cost-effective? Over time, company computer servers naturally rack up data and software additions, which slows down their performance considerably. Like any business, yours relies on the efficiency of its processes and work output to make a profit.

When the slow-down because apparent to an employee — it may be that you need to invest in a memory upgrade or a hard drive replacement. Just remember: you’ll also have to invest in backing up your data and software re-installation if the latter is the case. Weigh your costs.

Ask Yourself: Is It My Computer Server or Software?

Another large contributor to a computer server crash is software crashing. When your software crashes, it may indicate that your hardware is ill-equipped to handle the demands of that software on its memory or processing power.

The problem here, is that it can be very difficult to judge the performance of a computer outwardly; especially as all of us are very adaptive users, at risk of becoming accustomed to poor performance. When something is wrong with our computer we learn how to deal with it, because our work has to get done, no matter what. Is you’re having difficulty, a diagnostic is in order. You’ll want to contact IT support for a consultation.

Ask Yourself: Is My Computer Server on the Verge of Failure?

Computer monitoring software will determine just how bad the performance of your computer server is, and whether or not you should replace or upgrade. The software tracks the number of internal errors it racks up on a daily basis and notifies you before a crash takes place.

Ask Yourself: Is My Computer Server Still Covered By Warranty?

Here’s another good rule of thumb. If your server is no longer covered by a warranty or vendor support, it’s outdated.

A Fix For the Long-Haul

It may be that your server is not only unsupportable or aging rapidly, but that’s it’s inefficient to maintain. That’s what we’re getting at with the questions, here. Maybe your business is scaling rapidly and it’s time you virtualize your server. In the event that your server isn’t meeting the technological needs of your IT infrastructure, it’s outdated.

And one the last rule of thumb. If you’ve determined that it’s time to replace your old server, don’t throw it out. Contact your local IT supply recycler. They have the resources to properly dispose of hazardous materials, recycle reusable parts, and most importantly: destroy any private information which may still be stored in the memory.

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