Servers typically come with 3-yr warranty. Some manufacturers allow the warranty to be extended at the end, while others require that warranty extensions be purchased within 90 days of purchase. Almost all of them will not extend warranty beyond 5 years. Manufacturers typically charge a premium for warranty extension at the end of the period. Without warranty coverage, buying replacement parts is expensive and sometimes difficult to source, not to mention the wait for the parts to arrive. Therefore, it makes sense to extend warranty coverage for your server to the maximum 5 year period when purchasing the new server.

PIC stands for Productivity and Innovation Credit. It's the government's incentive scheme to encourage businesses to improve their productivity through IT and automation equipment. Under this scheme, you can claim 40% of the cost for your servers, notebooks, desktop PCs, network switches, routers, etc. Therefore, look at this scheme to offset the cost of purchasing your IT equipment.

The typical annual cost for an entry level cloud hosted virtual server is about $1000. After adding backup (it's not free) and support (also not free) the cost may go up. By comparison, an entry level server will cost about $2800. So you figured it evens out at 3 years. But wait, you can extend the warranty to 5 years with a little bit more. With a cloud hosted virtual server, the cost for the 4the and 5th year will be the same. Here's another tip. You can buy the server and claim 40% of the cost, while you can only claim annually for your cloud hosted virtual server subscription. Do the math.

With Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Edition, Microsoft lets you install up to 2 virtual servers with the same license. The host server that is also running the same OS does not count. So by consolidating and virtualizing your servers into a Hyper-V host server, you pay less for the OS. At the same time, you optimize your processing and storage hardware by not needing to buy ever more servers and storage.

VDI stands for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. It's the concept of running your computer desktop interface on a central server. By doing so, your staff can be anywhere in the world. As long as they have internet connection, they can connect to the server back in theoffice to get their work done. So where is the saving? Your office space. You will need lesser office space while expanding your business at the same time.