At some point, every business’s IT system is going to “age out.” This is typically indicated by having to invest in regular maintenance, increased costs, and issues with downtime.
If your IT infrastructure is about to fail, you may think it is still working fine; however, sneaky problems may occur, including limited ability, lower reliability, higher operational costs, and no opportunity to implement new technologies and applications. Additionally, the use of legacy infrastructure is usually more insecure.
The key to avoiding the issues mentioned above is to get to know the signs of failure. One way to know this is by using the best server monitoring software. Some other signs that your infrastructure is about to fail can be found here.
IMAGE: PEXELS
Downtime
This is the most obvious sign of a problem. Downtime with a legacy system means that something has gone wrong. As time passes, servers have to work much harder to handle the increased workload while the physical hardware actually degrades.
Your software and applications may have to work along with newer deployments, even if there is no compatibility. New storage and network technologies may not work with the legacy infrastructure, which leaves a person stuck using 10 Mbps or IPv4 network speeds.
In some cases, downtime may arise from improperly planned or managed upgrades too. When servers are added unsystematically, then a person may pull out a bit more performance, the issue is going to compound when an upgrade is done to the entire server room or when migrating to the cloud.
Poor Lifecycle And Inventory Management Or The Lack Of Power Or Space
In some cases, you may just be running out of room as your business starts to scale up. However, running out of power allotment and physical space may also be a sign of aging equipment that’s taking up excessive room in your data center.
Another issue is poor lifecycle and inventory management. This can result in the forgotten servers wasting away and running nothing, or workloads that still aren’t connected to your network. This is going to cost you money and drag your servers down around the “vampire” server.
If increased data center temperatures occur, or stress on your network and power backbone, then it may be time to make a change. Investing in a new IT initiative or opportunity are serious and expensive costs if your facility has been overloaded.
Static IP Addressing
There is no reason that you should have to manually set the IP addresses for your switches, servers, or other data center equipment. You also should not have to use a spreadsheet to help keep track of the provisioned IP addresses – unless, of course, you have grown attached to this particular method, or if you use it as a backup method.
DHCP servers will assign an IP address, as well as network configuration, based on your particular policies to each advice on your network. You want to make sure this server is configured with a high level of availability so that it will not fail; however, no longer do you have to manually set the IPs on your own. If you find yourself doing this, then it means that your entire infrastructure is completely out of date and needs to be updated.
If you said “yes” to any of the warning signs of IT infrastructure failure mentioned above, then it is time to make a change. Updating your systems is the best way to ensure that your system continues to run properly and ensure that no serious issues arise.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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