Are server warranties a rip-off?
We have covered how to save money by shopping smart and how to save money on hardware, now let’s tackle warranties! Whether the standard warranty is sufficient will depend somewhat on your individual needs and the equipment you purchase, but I typically recommend sticking with the standard 3 year NBD warranty. Some newer upgraded warranties offer operating system support and even support for major applications. I have no experience with any server manufacturer’s application support, so I cannot comment other than to say I am skeptical that a server manufacturer will provide better support than the application vendors themselves. I also think that operating system support direct from Microsoft and various Linux vendors is better than what the server manufacturers offer. Since most OS vendors provide high quality tech support on a pay per incident basis or as part of a maintenance program, I don’t see any value in paying HP or Dell up front for the same service.
The hardware warranty covers the cost of replacing a bad part or parts if something fails in the server. In most cases, the coverage time such as, Next Business Day, NBD 8hr x5 (Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM), NBD 13hr x6 (Monday-Saturday 8AM-9PM), and 4hr x7 (any day with 4hr response), refers to the time that a technician will arrive on-site to work on the problem. This does not necessarily mean that the problem will be fixed in that time period or that the technician will have the replacement part when they arrive. It is possible that you could call with a problem at 8 AM on a Monday and with a NBD warranty your technician might not arrive until 4 PM on Tuesday. That said, my experience with hardware warranty coverage has been pretty good and part availability from both HP and Dell has been good. Take into account that parts depots are near major cities and your replacement part will usually be shipped to you. FedEx or UPS will deliver the part to you or the service technician according to their normal shipping schedules. The cost of upgrading to a 4 hr x7 warranty is pretty expensive, so I tend to discourage it. 4hr x7 only guarantees that a technician will be at your site within 4 hours of finishing your call to support. If you are geographically close to a part depot, your part might be delivered by courier to your site, but you will most likely have to wait for it to be shipped to you. Unless a business is operational on Saturdays, I generally recommend the standard Next Business Day warranty for hardware. In my experience, neither HP nor Dell put less priority on physically responding to calls on servers with a less expensive warranty.
Is your server really mission critical? If the server goes down during the night or weekend, will anyone even notice? Will the person responsible for the server maintenance be available on weekends and nights, and if that isn’t you, are you willing to pay for that availability? If the server is down over a weekend or night are you losing money as a result? If you answered no to any of the previous questions, then a 4hr x7 warranty is overkill.
For true mission critical servers, a 4 hr x7 warranty may be advisable, but there are other options you may want to consider. The components that fail in a server most often are those with moving parts such as hard drives, fans, and power supplies. When purchasing a mission critical server you should always include those redundant parts! The server will continue to run if one of those parts fails, so the value of the 4 hour response time is greatly diminished, especially if the replacement part might not arrive until the next day anyway. Also consider the cost of a spare server. Can you purchase another stripped down server of the same model for about the same price as the upgraded warranty? If so, your downtime is limited to the time it takes you to move your hard drives and RAM to the spare server and push the power button. You might also be able to run a non critical app on the spare or use it as a test platform before rolling out a new application or upgrade to your production server. Having a spare could also save you or your consultant hours of troubleshooting time on the phone. I highly recommend purchasing a spare server rather than upgraded warranties when buying more than one of the same servers at the same time.
Software support, primarily operating system support, is the other component of some upgraded warranty offerings. Be careful when selecting your operating system if you plan to utilize software support. Most hardware vendors will only be staffed to support Windows operating systems and a few others. If you plan on running an OS other than Windows, make sure that your vendor supports that OS and that the OS version you plan to run is supported. Don’t expect hardware vendors to be able to assist with software applications or to be able to fix all OS problems. Your best option is to maintain a support plan or maintenance agreement with the application and OS vendors or budget for paid support calls.
Unfortunately, no warranty guarantees protection from data loss. In fact, every warranty that I have seen indemnifies the server manufacturer and their agents from responsibility for data loss. If a service technician does botch the repair, the best you can hope for is an apology. Most small businesses have a relationship with a consultant that assists with the integration and support of their computer equipment. I recommend spending a little money to have your consultant perform any repairs rather than the server manufacturer’s technician. I have had to clean up several data loss problems caused by technicians that botched a simple part replacement. The person working on your server should be very familiar with your network and the applications that run on your server. No technician sub-contracted to a server manufacturer is going to have that knowledge. Your ongoing business relationship is important to your consultant and they have an investment in making sure your server is repaired properly and operating optimally.
Let me add a quick note about calling the manufacturer for support on a server. Call as early in the day as possible if you do see a hardware failure on a server. The support personnel may require you to run tests on the failed component. You might miss a shipping deadline if you wait to call support until late in the afternoon, effectively turning your NBD warranty into a two day best effort support call.
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How to save big bucks on a name brand server : Part 1 – Shop Smart
How to save big bucks on a name brand server : Part 2 – save on Server Hardware
