How old is that server anyway? By Peter M. Abraham Over the past seven and a half years of being in business, we have noticed that most companies offering shared and dedicated servers do not replace their equipment on any regular basis. A lot of the server providers in the market place will re-rent old computers to new and existing clients. So, what’s the problem anyway?  Why does it matter if the server is several years old? Every piece of equipment within a data center has what is called Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) rating.  Mean Time Between Failure is the statistical mean time a component is expected to work without failing. The MTBF rating can be used to determine the percentage chance a given piece of equipment will fail. For the mathematically included among you, MTBF is applied to a group of equipment to help determine the quantity that will fail. For example, if you have servers with two hard drives and there are ten servers (20 hard drives) with the hard drives having a MTBF of 1,000,000 hours you can predict that 11 of the hard drives will fail during the first three years. The formula is as follows: 20 hard drives x 3 years x 8,760 hours in a year = 525,600 / 1,000,000 MTBF = 52.56% failure.  20 hard drives x 52.56 = 10.512 failures. Now what does this all mean in English?  Why should I be concerned? If you rent a dedicated server that is several years old or if you are hosting on a shared server that is several years old, here are issues that should have you gut wrenching mad!:  The older the equipment, the greater chance for a failure. The older the equipment, the greater chance that a vendor will not have a replacement part for the equipment. The older the equipment, the greater chance the equipment will be out of warranty. The older the equipment, the greater chance your site will perform poorly. But, my hosting provider has an up time guarantee.  Those issues don’t apply to me! If you carefully read the service level agreement for up time, you will most likely discover the up time guarantee only applies to their network, and not your server(s). Your equipment up time is not part of the up time guarantee! But, my hosting provider has a hardware repair / replacement guarantee.  Those issues don’t apply to me! That might be an accurate statement, if you didn’t dig deeper. Let’s dig deeper together. Most hardware repair and replacement guarantees  Cover a 90 minute to 120 minute time frame AFTER the problem has been diagnosed as being hardware.  It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to several days before a problem is diagnosed as being hardware related (15 to 30 minutes for a hard drive, potentially days for mother boards and RAM problems). Usually only cover part replacements, and not the replacement of the entire server. Usually have no statements about what happens when the equipment or its components run out of warranty or replacement parts are no longer available. So with a greater chance for failure because the equipment is old, and not all hardware problems being able to be diagnosed quickly, do you really want to gamble your business Internet services on that greater chance for failure? But, I’m only on a shared hosting plan.  Life has been good.  Why should I care? The historians among us can point out how Europe and Japan’s manufacturing out performed the U.S. because of grants, aids, and outright investing in new manufacturing plants after the World Wars. Technology continues to progress at a very fast pace.  Ryan May, our Director of Managed Hosting Services pointed out just the other day that 3 GHz personal computers are already on the store shelves. Now imagine the following scenario that is highly probable:  Your competitors are on servers that are newer, and therefore faster than yours. Your competitors are on servers that because they are newer, fail less often. Hmmm, do you think your market – your customers and prospects will notice?  Do you want to take that chance?  How do I protect myself? If you are looking to rent a server (dedicated servers are rented, not leased), then ask the company representative for the exact date the equipment was purchased. Dynamic Net makes it a point to provide you with brand new equipment (you place an order, we order brand new equipment, your brand new equipment is installed).  If you have a “managed” dedicated server through Dynamic Net, you start off with brand new equipment, and every three years from the installation date, we replace your existing equipment with brand new equipment at no cost to you. If you are looking to subscribe to a shared hosting plan, then ask the company representative when the servers they use for shared hosting were purchased. Dynamic Net makes it a point to replace the equipment used for shared servers every two to three years (our track record since 1996 is every two years). Is there anything else I should ask? You should also ask for the name of the manufacturer of the server(s) you are using for your hosting needs. Are they a well recognized manufacturer?  Do they have a good reputation in the Internet server equipment industry? Dynamic Net has made it a point to use Compaq servers from HP (Hewlett Packard).  Compaq has a history of building servers that are faster and more reliable than the competition. Do you want more information?  Call our business development department toll free at 1-888-887-6727 or internationally at 1-717-484-1062 or email us at . Resources  http://www.zzyzx.com/products/whitepapers/pdf/MTBF_and_availability_primer.pdf http://www.enterasys.com/support/mtbf/ http://www.bluemax.net/docs/Motherboards/General_Info/mtbf.html