When the server in the office gets old, two paths appear: buy a new one or rent one. The right answer differs from organization to organization; so this article does not give an answer. It offers five criteria, and the questions to ask for each, to put your decision on solid ground. We suggest answering the criteria separately for both options.
This article is for general information. Before deciding for your own environment, you need to write down your needs and compare quotes with the same yardsticks.
1. Capacity flexibility
Will your needs change over time? If you think processor, memory and disk requirements may rise and fall in the coming period, look at what changing capacity means in each option. Questions: With which steps and in how long is a capacity increase made? Is an increase based on a contract table, or on buying new hardware? What happens to excess capacity should also be asked.
2. Management load
A server is not just a device; it is a responsibility that requires updates, monitoring, fault response and hardware maintenance. Questions: Who does these tasks today? What happens if that person is not there or is busy with other work? Depending on the option, which tasks belong to you and which to a provider, and is this split written down? Who is responsible for responding to a hardware failure also belongs under this heading.
3. Data location and access
Where your data physically sits, and who can reach it and by what route, is an important question. Questions: Is the server in the office or in a data center? Who can have physical access? Through which channel is remote access provided, and how do your users connect to it? If your organization has its own rules on data location, or expectations coming from contracts, they should be put on the table before the decision.
4. Backup and continuity responsibility
Whichever option you choose, the owner of the backup must be clear. Questions: Is a backup taken, where is it kept, who monitors it? What happens if the server goes out of service, and where is the service level written? In a rental, “backup space” may be a resource item, but managing the backup is a separate job; it should be clear which side holds that. The restore test is added to the scope on request; its frequency and report are written in the quote.
5. Ease of exit and migration
A decision taken today should be reversible later. Questions: When you want to move to another solution, in what form and with whose help can you move your data? Is the fate of the data written down when the contract ends? Each option has its own exit route, such as disposing of purchased hardware or returning rented resources; seeing this from the start reduces surprises.
Reading the criteria together
Write the five headings in a two-column table: “new server” on one side, “rented server” on the other. In each cell, put the written answer you got from providers or from your own team. Empty cells are topics to be clarified before the decision. It is also possible for a single criterion to outweigh the others; for example, having nobody to take on the management may override the other headings. Your organization sets this weight.
Common mistakes when deciding
The first mistake is looking at only one of the criteria and leaving the others for later; for example, discussing capacity and never asking about exit. The second mistake is deciding according to today’s needs. Write down, at least in rough terms, how your organization will look in a few years and how the number of employees and applications will change. The third mistake is assuming responsibility: sentences such as “they are surely taking the backup” or “we thought we were doing the updates” are often a sign of a split that is not written down.
If possible, invite to the decision meeting not only the IT side but also the manager who owns the budget and business continuity. Even if the server decision looks technical, the people whose workflow is affected when a failure occurs should be at that table.
How does renting work at 7 Tepe?
In our data center infrastructure in Istanbul, we offer three options: rented physical and virtual servers, cloud servers with resource packages, and colocation for your own hardware. Some principles are set from the start:
- Infrastructure rental is a separate item from the management service. If you wish, you can take server management together with Managed IT Services.
- Traffic is subject to a quota; we increase the resource according to the resource table in the contract.
- We define the service level (SLA) in tiers and write it into the contract.
- Data migration and hardware procurement are out of scope; we offer them with a separate quote.
For the whole service, you can look at the Data Center and Server Rental page.
Also on this topic: 7 questions to ask before outsourcing corporate IT
Would you like to see a resource table for your own needs?
