EddScott

Our office has a very small network of 8 PCs. We have a "server" in as much as a machine that is left on 24/7 with 2 RAID'd HDs. The server does nothing more taxing than holding word and excel files and pdfs etc.

IIRC I built the machine in 2006 and its never really been off since. For what we use it for its hardly taxed.

However, I am mildly concerned about its lifespan - is there standard practice for replacement of critical items like this?

Its all backed up almost daily if not weekly so we wouldn't be without the machines for more than a couple of hours if it did break.

I'm asking because its the end of the year and need to know how much of the IT budget I can swindle to build a new gaming PC

Avi

We have servers that are over 10 years old. They are on 24/7 and we've no real need to replace them. We just accept that if they die, we restore from a backup to another server which may mean a day of downtime. On the other hand, our critical system servers are replaced every 4 years at a maximum. (usually when the hardware warranty runs out).

We do have one critical system on an NT box (Dell poweredge), running sql 6.5 that has only been off for a maximum of 4 Hours in the last 10 years. Never once had a hardware issue with it! We have an identical box next to it ready for a quick swapover.

I guess it's up to you to make an assesment on based on business continutiy requirements.

ChrisB

Depends on the customer and how much they squeek when it comes to spending money.

A "proper" server like a HP ProLiant will usually see at least 5 years for most of our customers. I'm just speaking to somebody else about looking to budget a replacement server for Q1 2011, at which point their server will be just over 7 years old (Supermicro based box I built).