What steps can you take to address tight budgets, talent shortages and increased demands on your IT infrastructure? Explore three key strategies for data center optimization:
- Extending equipment lifespans
- Exploring alternative hardware options
- Adopting a hybrid of OEM support and third-party maintenance (TPM)
These practical, data-driven approaches aid in refresh planning, asset management and service models. Watch our webinar for more details and examples.
1. Extend your data center equipment life cycles
OEM refresh timelines often strain budgets and disrupt stable environments. Many organizations feel pressure to update hardware based on OEM milestones and support limitations, rather than performance data, which can lead to unnecessary spending and a decrease in equipment ROI.
Unlike cars or home appliances, most data center equipment doesn’t begin experiencing service issues immediately after the warranty expires. When your server, storage or network systems reach EOL/EOSL, failures may increase slightly. However, decades of data show that overall reliability declines gradually — not abruptly — for non-critical items, such as fans, power supplies and disks.
Extending the useful life of your equipment doesn’t mean keeping it past its use-by date indefinitely. Adjusting your current refresh cycle by one or two years is a more realistic expectation.
The end of sale stage alone isn’t enough to base your refresh decision. Instead, refresh triggers should focus on reliability, capacity, compatibility and performance factors, rather than simply the age of your equipment.
Take control of your refresh cadence by identifying what your business truly needs, rather than only relying on OEM milestones as your guide. Extending equipment life cycles is a data-driven strategy that lowers costs, reduces waste and improves asset ROI.
2. Explore alternatives to new hardware
When IT leaders hear “refresh,” they often think “buy new.” It’s important to note that there are alternatives to purchasing new, especially when budget pressures, supply chain delays and sustainability goals make that approach challenging.
Typically, OEMs recommend a refresh cycle of 3–5 years based on their business model. Conversely, most of our customers refresh every 5–6 years due to budget constraints, migration and deployment logistics. Refreshing isn’t a simple flip of the switch; it requires planning, timing and resources. Opting for alternative hardware options can extend your refreshes to 7–8 years.
With refurbished or previous-generation equipment, you can explore cost-effective alternatives and still meet performance and compliance requirements. Ultimately, you achieve the same results with lower CapEx and minimal operational disruption.
These real-world customer examples illustrate significant cost savings while maintaining comparable performance:
VMware environment
Upgraded Dell PowerEdge servers with refurbished hardware that matched the performance of new equipment
Saved approximately $130,000
Enterprise storage
(IBM DS8000 family)
Switched to an N-1 DS8 series refurbished model
Saved on multimillion-dollar costs/expenses
Memory upgrades
Replaced costly new memory with refurbished modules
Saved up to 95% compared to OEM prices
The main message is to supplement your refresh plans with alternative hardware options, not to avoid buying new products or from the OEM entirely. Consider alternatives, such as N-1 generations and refurbished hardware, to meet capacity and performance needs at significantly lower CapEx.
3. Adopt a hybrid maintenance approach
Choosing between OEM and TPM support isn’t an all-or-nothing decision. With a hybrid strategy, you don’t overpay for OEM maintenance, risk coverage gaps on EOL & EOSL equipment or refresh your hardware unnecessarily.
By utilizing OEM support where it’s needed and TPM for hardware that is stable or past the OEM development cycle, the result is balanced performance, compliance and cost, leading to a more efficient long-term maintenance strategy.
OEM support
Specific critical services that require an active OEM agreement, such as edge firewalls, security features or subscription-based components
Equipment that requires licensed code, firmware and subscription services
TPM support
EOSL assets, especially where code development has ceased or firmware is freely available
Networking gear that has passed end of software maintenance or engineering; the OEM no longer offers patches or updates
Instances where free updates are available
A hybrid maintenance model meets a variety of needs, but it requires a detailed assessment of your environment and regular oversight. Focus on finding a solution that aligns with your specific infrastructure support needs.
Key takeaways for your optimization journey
By leveraging these three strategies, you can optimize your overall data center environment, improve service and achieve better CapEx and OpEx savings.
Key takeaways for navigating the evolving IT landscape:
- Real-world data support a measured approach to extending life cycles and considering cost-effective alternatives for refreshing.
- End of sale is not the only trigger for a refresh; evaluate reliability, performance and capacity data first.
- Refurbished or N-1 configurations can provide near-equivalent performance at a significantly lower cost.
- Hybrid maintenance can optimize spend and uptime but requires clear asset management and governance to decide when to use TPM or OEM support.
For a plan tailored to your environment, please contact our team. We’ll assess your asset portfolio and help develop a comprehensive data center modernization road map.
