Am I getting ripped off?

[markwarfeljr]

Hi All - new to the forum but a lurker for many years. 

 

I work for a small architecture office of 7 people and we retain an IT guy to maintain our computer hardware and office infrastructure. Our current server is 7 years old and he's convinced that we need a new one. The server world is a little nebulous to me so I was wondering if you could help me out and let me know if this is completely overkill. Here are the specs: 

 

Lenovo ThinkSystem SR550

• Dual Xeon 4214's
• 128 GB of ram 
• 4 x 2TB Lenovo 3.5" S4510
• Various Microsoft licenses
• 5 years of support (from manufacturer)

$17,000.00 (US) 

+ 

$6,000.00 for setup and on-site installation

$23,000.00

 

I have no idea if this is out of line with the normal cost for a server but to my novice brain this seems like a system that is completely overkill for an office of 7 people who use it like a glorified NAS. ((I should note that we use this sever to virtualize; a main file server, a backup server, and a mail server; and that our IT guy is very old school)).

 

Thanks, 

-Mark 

[Shimejii]

yeah that is quite the rip off. Xeon 4214's are around 750$. If they were the super expensive xeons i could understand. But that system is probably worth maybe 3000$?

[Haraikomono]

I dont get it, 17,000$ for the server ?

[Jumballi]

It could be a lot, it be a steal, server parts and software licenses are a mixed bag in terms of pricing.

 

If you’re the guy in charge of budget, get an outside estimate before you give the go ahead. Understand that these computers are invested in for many failsafes and extremely timely repair services. So if you plan to use it for a decade, $2k per year is a reasonable amount when you take that into account.

 

[markwarfeljr]

2 minutes ago, Jumballi said:

It could be a lot, it be a steal, server parts and software licenses are a mixed bag in terms of pricing.

 

If you’re the guy in charge of budget, get an outside estimate before you give the go ahead. Understand that these computers are invested in for many failsafes and extremely timely repair services. So if you plan to use it for a decade, $2k per year is a reasonable amount when you take that into account.

 

For sure. Unfortunately I don't get to make the decisions (that's up to someone who has said yes to the IT guy for 20 years without questioning him). We've ran into reliability problems with him in the past where we will be down for a day or more, mostly because he lives in another state and has to drive many hours to come in if there is a problem. 

[amckern]

4 hours ago, markwarfeljr said:

he lives in another state

Yeah, No! This is not good. I would start looking at opening up the maintenance contract to a local vendor.

 

Also, don't just accept what ever they offer.

• Why do they recommend this to you?
• What is the SLA?
• Who manages the SLA?
• How long is the maintenance contract?
• Will you be breaking the warranty if you open / repair with a local agent?
• What other vendor could offer a better price?
  • Toshiba
  • Dell
  • HP
• Do you need a local service, or could you move to the cloud?

[markwarfeljr]

11 hours ago, amckern said:

Yeah, No! This is not good. I would start looking at opening up the maintenance contract to a local vendor.

 

Also, don't just accept what ever they offer.

• Why do they recommend this to you?
• What is the SLA?
• Who manages the SLA?
• How long is the maintenance contract?
• Will you be breaking the warranty if you open / repair with a local agent?
• What other vendor could offer a better price?
  • Toshiba
  • Dell
  • HP
• Do you need a local service, or could you move to the cloud?

There is a lot of history in place that I have a hard time fighting against. We pay hourly for system maintenance (which is ballpark $1,000 a month). I seems like we're getting ripped off big time but the problem is the people who make the decisions are don't know any better and hate the idea of dealing with someone new if we were to switch. I think the current guy has made the whole system overly complex and someone new might need to just start over...

 

I really wish they would work with someone else because its insane that we need to run and maintain our own email server for an office of 7 people. We would save so much money and headache going with a service provider.