Servers are the backbone of modern IT infrastructure. They support the computational
requirements
of the entire application portfolio of an enterprise organization. However, their life span
is finite. A new
generation of servers performs much better than its predecessors. Still, is this
outperformance worth it?
As businesses digitize themselves, seek long-term resiliency for their current business
models, and
explore new revenue-generation opportunities, server infrastructure shifts from a cost to an
asset.
In other words, it generates tangible return on its use. The worth of server infrastructure
to a business
is much different than it used to be. Over time, the value of current server infrastructure
depreciates.
As this occurs, organizations must evaluate the cost benefits of procuring new servers
compared with
the cumulative costs (maintenance, upkeep, outages, etc.) of running older servers.
Chief information officers (CIOs) and IT leaders must select the optimal time to replace all
or part of their
existing server infrastructure. There is a mindset that pushing out server-refresh
initiatives is prudent
when business priorities change or cash needs to be preserved.
