Maximizing IT equipment at a minimum cost
In these tough economic times, everyone is trying to stretch IT budgets or extend the life of existing servers. Buying new equipment can be costly to purchase and to implement into your environment. Follow our suggestions below and you will save money and time.
Analyze usage and look for upgrade opportunities
Replacing a server is not always the solution to poor performance or limited hard drive space. Upgrades to processors, memory, or hard drives can easily be added to an existing server allowing it to handle your current needs. At xByte Technologies, we have helped save companies thousands of dollars by analyzing how they use specific servers and recommending upgrades to optimize performance. By understanding the way each server is being used, we can identify performance bottlenecks and then determine the necessary upgrades. The cost of these upgrades is a fraction of the cost compared to a new server.
Split functionality between multiple machines (physical or virtual)
Upgrading existing equipment is the lowest cost option, but even putting in the fastest processor may not help reach the performance levels you need. Your next option is to look at how you are using each server. If any machine is used for multiple applications, you might be able to separate the application and maximize each server. We often find companies have the same physical machine carry out multiple applications such as a database/application server or a web/mail server. One of the applications (e.g. web server) dominates the machine forcing the other application (e.g. mail server) to underperform. You may be able to upgrade the components and then separate the functionality between multiple “virtual” servers. If you must buy an additional machine, look at lower cost refurbished equipment. Splitting functionality between multiple real or virtual servers helps to dedicate all resources necessary to each function.
Expand your business with refurbished instead of new
When buying refurbished equipment, you can get the same high quality (or better) and warranty at a lower cost. The quickest way to determine if your vendor sells quality parts is to ask them if their parts are original manufacturer parts. Like Dell, each manufacturer tests their components and certifies them to be enterprise ready and includes firmware to optimize their performance for that manufacturer. If the parts did not originally come from the manufacturer, they may not perform at the same levels or in some cases may not be 100% compatible. Because refurbished equipment has been used and tested more than new equipment, failure rates can actually be lower. If something does fail, then you need a vendor with a strong warranty and history of delivering on their warranty. We’ve heard very positive comments from our xByte customers when we tell them about our Advance RMA Warranty because they don’t have to pay for replacements or wait for us to receive their old parts before sending a replacement. Like a new server purchase, a refurbished server can come with one to three years of warranty. Make sure your refurbished vendor stocks replacement parts, so if something goes wrong you are not waiting on them to find the part you need.
Sell your existing equipment to help pay for new purchase
For those of you that must have new equipment, your older servers can still help you stretch your budget. By selling your equipment, you not only recover some of your expense but you also help reduce our landfills and give someone else an opportunity to save money buying your used equipment.
For help with any of the suggestions above you can visit
www.xByte.com or contact xByte Technologies directly at 888-929-8348.