Question: In these tough economic times, we are trying to save money where we can, but we have a server that is 5 years old and some other equipment that was purchased around the same time.  How long should we hang on to this stuff or should we replace it now ? - Will H, Maryland

Answer:  It is certainly understandable to try and postpone spending during tough economic times and the answer to your question is, it depends.  If the systems that you have are performing well and your employees are not complaining about lost productivity because your systems are crashing or slow, then you should be fine to hold off on purchasing new systems.  The average life expectancy of a server is 3-5 years, a desktop is 3-5 years, a laptop is 2-4 years.  Many companies will replace 20-25% of their IT equipment each year to keep everything up to date and spread the cost over a 4-5 year period.

You also have to consider the operating system and applications that are running on the server or desktop/laptop since they might be outdated and non-supported.  For example, if you use Microsoft Windows for your server operating system, it should be Server 2003 or higher.  For your desktops/laptops you should be on XP or higher.

If, on the other hand, you are experiencing poor response time, system crashes, downtime, or other problems you may be sacrificing productivity for the cost of new equipment.  At this point, the cost of replacement may be less than the cost to support and maintain the old equipment.

If you have any comments or additional questions on this topic, please add them to the conversation.