If This Screen Feels Familiar, We Should Talk

Most buildings have at least one machine that's older than the person using it. It usually still works, which is why nobody has replaced it. Here's how we deal with it.

What an aging environment quietly costs you

• Software that no longer receives security updates is a gap your insurer and your customers can both see.
• The machine everyone works around is a machine nobody has priced a replacement for.
• When one old application holds everything else back, it can be replaced on a plan like anything else.
• Replacing equipment on a schedule costs less than replacing it on the morning it stops.

On this desktop

My Old Server

Nine years in service, and the only person who knew how it was configured has left.

Shared Folder

Everyone has access to everything, because sorting that out was always next quarter.

Recycle Bin

Where the backup restore test went, assuming anyone ever ran one.

Line of Business

The application the whole company depends on, running on the machine nobody may reboot.

System Properties

What replacing it on a plan looks like

1. We write down what you're running

Every machine, how old it is and what depends on it, ranked by what we'd deal with first, with the reason next to each one. You keep that document whatever you decide.

2. It gets replaced on a plan

You get a written refresh schedule with a number against each year, so old equipment stops turning into emergency purchases.