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Microsoft extends the life of Azure servers by 50%

Cloud service providers have invested large sums of money in equipping and expanding their data centers in recent years, but both the current and future situation and the possibilities that technology currently offers them are causing them to begin to curb their spending . To do this, among other things, they are beginning to extend the life of the servers in their data centers. What microsoftwhich in one of its last meetings with financial analysts, according to Network World, has announced its intention to increase the life of its cloud servers, the ones it uses for Azure, from four years to six years.

The Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, already announced it a few days ago at a recent meeting with various analysts. In it he argued that this elongation is due to «increased efficiencies in how we operate our network equipment and servers, as well as advances in technology that have led to a life that extends beyond historically recorded useful lives«.

Obviously, these savings are not bad either, since according to Hood, a lower rate of purchase of servers can save the company, only in 2023, no less than 3,700 million dollars. But not only Microsoft has taken this step. Both AWS and Google have indicated in their respective results meetings last February that they had decided to increase the life of their servers by a year.

In addition, many companies now have longer equipment refresh cycles than professional datacenters, despite the fact that there are many differences between enterprise datacenters and those of cloud providers. Companies usually have a guarantee for their hardware, while cloud service providers. That’s how it ensures Ashish Nadkarni, Vice President of Infrastructure Practice at IDC. These use hardware on such a scale that if a part fails, it is repaired or replaced using internally contracted personnel.

Data centers also use redundancy models, while companies may be under financial pressure to achieve a similar level of resiliency, and it is common to do without them. However, equipment manufacturers are also changing sales models while improving technology. At least the main ones are passing from the direct sale of servers to the leasing model or its sale “as a service”, with programs like HPE GreenLake. With them, the manufacturers are the ones who are responsible for the hardware in exchange for monthly fees based on what is purchased as a service.

But in general, according to Nadkami, today’s servers last longer than those of a decade ago. Thus, for him, the time between failures is much longer. Especially in the case of parts. That is why not only has its useful life increased. He has also done as long as they can be in operation in that period. In addition, he has also improved the fan design and heat dissipation and management system design apart from the cooling technology. This has also led to an increase in the time that the servers can be working perfectly.

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