I CAN HAZ HARDWARE?!
I think an oft overlooked part of an IT budget is the money allotted and committed to refreshing and replacing aging hardware. Users and clients usually think it’s a waste of funds to replace something that can “be fixed” or that “still works” but seem to be blind to the myriad hidden costs. Dated hardware, not only, often offers less functionality and lower capacity for productivity, but also, is usually more expensive to maintain in a number of ways. This can be attributed to things like to lack of (affordable) spare or replacement parts, lack of current vendor support (Technicians/software updates) or even lack of engineers with the required skill set(s) to repair, reconfigure or even administrate said devices. This, in turn, leads to more hours of downtime and work hours lost during outage situations, as well as, many hours billed by unversed engineers as they learn, research and ultimately resolve any issues with the antiquated , sometimes steam powered (I kid), systems in question. Sometimes even replacing old hardware with newer, lightly used devices can keep your environment reasonably current, while still keeping costs down, and conversely, if the hardware you’re replacing is reasonably serviceable and not too wizened, you can offset the costs of new hardware by selling the things you are replacing. I’M IN YOUR SERVERZ, IMPROVING YOUR COST EFFICIENCY.
Jim Burns, PEI
