1

Hey, how often do you guys replace hardware? Do you just use it until it dies or follow that 5-year advice I keep seeing?

24 Spice ups
2

Having most of my customers machines now being at least 4th generation i3/5/7 systems with at least 8GB RAM and SSD drives, I plan to run them into the ground. Of course, who knows what technology the future holds.

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3

To broad of a question, are we talking end user hardware, servers, networking, UPS and power infrastructure?

End User Devices - 3 Y

Servers 5-7 Y

Switches and other networking- Till death do us part

Power - Capacity and maintenance costs

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4

desktops and workstations - We still have some that are from 2005 - 2007. The spinning disks have all failed. Replaced with SSD, and they bring new life to the computer. Basically, we run them till the wheels fall off.

Laptops - They usually last about 3 - 5 years. Usually, we replace them at 3yrs to prevent any downtime since we do not stock replacement laptops.

Servers- 5 - 7 years or EOL from the manufacturer. Our old SAN went EOL and we couldn’t obtain a new service contract, this is what prompted our latest infrastructure update.

Network Equipment - We keep them running until they die.

Firewall - Upgrade when it can’t keep up with our WAN connections speed. Just because your firewall has 1gb ports, doesn’t mean it can process data that fast :slight_smile:

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5

Ok thats cool. I’ve been worried some of our older managed switches, routers, etc. have security issues coz they’re past end-of-life and haven’t gotten updates in years. Is that not a problem? I also worry about some really old APC UPS’s from 15 years ago. They work great and they have network management, and except for the network security, they’re perfect.

6

We have a 3-5 year refresh for everything. Well, I don’t know about SANs as we got our first one 3 years ago.

7

Laptops and desktops are replaced by year 4, which we call a 1/3 refresh schedule.

Servers are replaced by year 5, due to 24/7 usage and at year 5, the maintenance contract is usually not worth investing in. If for some reason the server is EoL before the 5th year, it is replaced earlier and the replaced unit might be cycled down to a TEST box, if required.

Network equipment is replaced when we out grow it. If you have chassis type network gear, you simply replace the blades/cards.

UPS batteries are replaced when they will no longer hold a charge or will not handle the load for the expected time frame.

Depending on the size and requirements of the organization, you may have redundant equipment within your core, so staggering the purchases of the core equipment will make replacement a little less haphazard and better hold to the 3/5/7 year time line.

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8

There is always one rule in the places i have worked at “If it aint broken, don’t fix it”…well am in africa where every piece of equipment is deem expensive.

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9

We are a K-12 public school system so we use pretty much everything until it dies or is a security risk.

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10

We pretty much run user equipment into the ground. There is no budget for anything else.

VM hosts I try to keep under manufacturer support. Same with edge devices (Fortigate UTMs).

The again I live in Venezuela: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/world/americas/venzuela-blackout-maduro.html

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11

Same as the others, it depends on the equipment. Laptops/desktops are about 5 years, servers 5-6. Routers/firewalls I’ll keep until shortly after EOL or they die, whichever comes first. Switches until they die. I keep a few spares of most things around in case something dies unexpectedly. They are typically older, inferior hardware to what we’re already using, but the intent is just to use them to get us back up and running for the few days or weeks it might take to replace whatever died.

Note with servers, while I replace my primaries in 5-6 years, I continue using the old machines. For example, my secondary DC VM is hosted on an 8 year old machine.

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12

Server every 5yrs, Storage every 5yrs andUser devices - 3yrs. Server and storage may be reused in small projects if we wont it off the main production.

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13

Current job let it run into the ground. We still have production machines that were deployed in 2009! Personally I say 4 years is a good enough turn around time to get a hardware refresh.

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14

Regarding unsupported switches that can’t be updated, yes those could (probably do) have vulnerabilities. But it always comes down to appetite for risk and budget.

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15

Our goal for desktops is every 5 years with 20% of desktops being replaced each year so it is a fairly constant process with no huge spikes in expenses. However a tough budget cycle or an huge influx of equipment related to the occasional new building does cause that 20% per year number to fluctuate but, in general, it smooths out over time.

Servers are replaced less frequently and tends to be based more on demand. There is not really a hard and fast rule with them, it is more of a pure cost/benefit vs demand/capacity situation.

Network equipment… I think that is pretty much feral at this point. Not really, it just is handled by a different part of the department so I don’t have a good grasp on their strategy. Although we apparently found an active coax/thinnet connection between floors a couple of years back that had apparently been running unnoticed for around 20 years so there very well may be a feral component or two around.

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16

I’m very sorry to hear that my friend. I really feel for you. You have no idea. You are amazing for ‘hanging in there’

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17

We use our server hardware goes until it dies dead.

The original purpose that we got it for takes about 8-10 years before the next phase. At that point it gets re-purposed such as being retired from production and seeing second life in the office.

Beyond that, it stays running until it dies dead.

Desktops seem to be useful for around 5 - 8 years and after that get a second life as a spare.

Production so far has about an 8 - 10 year lifespan. We’re currently in the last 2 of that.

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18

We do not use time as the only factor.

We use things till they die or have a negative effect on work flow.

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19

ok, this is probably a dumb question, but why does 5 years come up all the time for hardware refreshes? Is it a marketing thing by vendors or is there something magic to so many using 5 years as a replacement time/ Thanks!

20

I see no reason to replace machines solely based on an arbitrary age.

I have 5 year old 4th generation i3/5/7 machines that with adequate RAM and SSD drives perform almost identically to brand new 8th generation boxes - at least for my average user’s workload.

Years ago when 3-5 years was an eternity in technology with huge speed differences, I’d agree. Today there isn’t much difference on an average Office type PC.

I try to get my customers to funnel money they would spend possibly needlessly replacing PC’s into other areas - upgrading network infrastructure, backup infrastructure, etc.

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