School is here and the Summer is gone. Seems not very long ago that we sent out our “Cabin Fever Care Package”! The past few weeks have been busy with customers replacing equipment that has finally reached the end of its life. Speaking of EOL (end-of-life), just a reminder that Microsoft Windows 2000 Server has reached that point and is no longer supported by Microsoft. If you do have any servers running that system you seriously need to plan for replacement.

This topic of replacement comes up in a lot of discussions with customers and it is tricky because as a business owner, I can relate to ‘getting the most out of an investment’, but also fearing the ‘chaos conversion’ (having to do a replacement under pressure because the old system has finally crashed). There are several factors that go into that decision and has prompted me to write a white paper to give business owners and decision makers some guidelines to consider.

Here is a quick preview of some those factors:

• Age of the systems – budget for 3 years, 4-5 years is typical, more than that and it is borrowed time
• Warranty – covered or not?
• Capacity – Memory, Disk Space and Performance… have you outgrown it? is it cost effective to fix vs. replace?
• Reliability – Two steps forward, one step back?
• Application and Operating System – Are you being forced to move because the programs you run require a different platform?
• Business Contingency – One of the most important factors – how long can you afford to be without that ‘service’.

I hope to have completed this white paper by the next newsletter. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please e-mail jeny@yournetexperts.com and request it.