As a business, the thought of IT downtime is probably enough to make you nervous. We’ve recently seen a slew of businesses at risk of substantial IT downtime, not due to
ransomware or lack of
backups, but due to not having the right server warranties (or not renewing them when they run out).
A server warranty, like insurance, may seem like a pointless expense – until the day you need it. If your server goes down and doesn’t come back on, how would that affect your business’s ability to run? What if it was down for a day, or a week? In this blog, we’ll explore why it’s important to have server warranties, what happens if your server fails and our recommendations.
Business Servers
If you have a business with a server onsite, you’re probably already aware of how fundamental that server is to your business’s functionality. It might store all of your files and folders or house your email system. It might run the application that your company uses all day, every day. It might just be a vital part of ensuring all of your computers can access an internet connection.
Whatever purpose your server meets, it’s an important piece of equipment. When business servers go down, the business very often grinds to a halt until it can come back on.
If your server is nearing the end of its life, or if you’re looking at whether you should invest in one for your company, see our previous blog on
whether or not your business still needs a server. There, we look at who needs a server and some alternative options to having one in the office.
What Is a Server Warranty?
For anything you buy – from kitchen appliances to your car – the manufacturer will often provide a warranty and give you the option to extend or upgrade it. The basic guarantee of a warranty is that if anything happens to the parts within the product within a certain length of time – typically a year or so – they’ll replace those parts free of charge and get the product working again.
A server warranty is no different. When you purchase a server, it will usually come with a one-, three- or five-year warranty. This is because a server contains a lot of hardware and the warranty ensures that if any of those parts malfunction, then the company from whom you bought the server will come out, replace the parts and restore your server to functioning.
Recently, we were called out to a business with a server that was ten years old. Its server warranty had expired
seven years ago. Imagine the damage that could do to your business if left unchecked.
What Happens If Your Server Fails?
One day something could go wrong with your server. If you have a server warranty, then in a matter of hours or a day, a technician will come out to identify and fix the issue.
When you don’t have a warranty, it’s a bit more complicated, which is why you and your IT provider should work together to ensure your equipment is under warranty and renew warranties as needed.
Once your IT provider has gotten over the initial panic of realising the server isn’t under warranty, they would have to start looking into fixing the issue themselves. This means finding the issue, identifying the correct part needed to fix it (and if the server is older, finding suitable parts can be tricky). Then it’s a case of waiting for the part to arrive and fitting it.
All the time, you’re waiting for your server to be fixed and missing out on whichever function the server offers your business.
Our Server Warranty Recommendations
As a company that provides IT services to
many businesses, we have seen first-hand how damaging IT downtime can be. Therefore, when buying server warranties for your business, we recommend what is known as a ‘four-hour SLA’ warranty. This means that their technicians will come out to repair your server within four hours after you call.
It’s still four hours without a server, but you’ll soon be back up and running again.
Big companies, like Dell and HP, also often provide a next-day warranty. As the name suggests, this guarantees that their technicians will come out the next day. Unfortunately, that could mean up to two days without a working server.
To check whether you have valid server warranties for your Dell or HP products, simply visit or
Dell Support or
HP Support and enter your server’s serial number or serial tag to check its status. Keeping your server warranty renewed and up to date is key to ensuring that you will face minimal business downtime if things go wrong.
If you’re feeling
trapped by your IT provider, please don’t hesitate to
contact our team today; we offer
independent consultations and
IT support services to ensure that your business is always running its best.
