How Do I Provide a Workstation To Last 15 Years?

An anonymous reader writes "My father is a veterinarian with a small private practice. He runs all his patient/client/financial administration on two simple workstations, linked with a network cable. The administration application is a simple DOS application backed by a database. Now the current systems, a Pentium 66mhz and a 486, both with 8MB of RAM and 500MB of hard drive space, are getting a bit long in the tooth. The 500MB harddrives are filling up, the installed software (Windows 95) is getting a bit flakey at times. My father has asked me to think about replacing the current setup. I do know a lot about computers, but my father would really like the new setup to last 10-15 years, just like the current one has. I just dont know where to begin thinking about that kind of systems lifetime. Do I buy, or build myself? How many spare parts should I keep in reserve? What will fail first, and how many years down the line will that happen?"

Comments

Buy any current workstation and...

[Anonymous Coward]

Virtualize!

Then your father's old setup can remain DOS and Win95 effectively forever, on any modern hardware. I've done this for lots of clients with legacy WinNT and Win95 systems.

The process is called "physical to virtual" (P2V) migration.

forget it

[Arthurio]

Tell him that replacing the system every 5 years will be cheaper than getting one that will last 15 years. There, problem solved.

Re:forget it

[friendofthenite]

There, problem solved.

That doesn't solve the problem, it ignores his principal request. The guy looking to buy a computer has made it clear that he doesn't want to have to replace his computer every few years; nowhere does the description say that he's looking to minimise cost. Your response is typical of IT (and other) professionals who presume to know users want, rather than listening to what they actually want.

Re:forget it

[rennerik]

Sometimes (most of the time) users don't know what they want, especially when it comes to IT. Many times they ask for the wrong things, and make the wrong decisions. It's our job, as IT consultants, to let them know what the best solution to the problem would be.

For example, asking, "Why do you want your setup to last fifteen years?" may yield answers like, "I don't want to deal with the costs involved with constantly upgrading" or "I'm familiar with my current system, and I am willing to change, but I don't want to have to refamiliarize myself with it every five years" or maybe even "I don't want to have to pay for someone to upgrade our systems every five years."

All of those answers are perfectly reasonable, but all of them are misinformed. It's our job to let them know that, yes, it may sound expensive at first to upgrade every five years, but putting together a bullet-proof system to last fifteen years is much more expensive. We can also explain how to remain compatible (say, via virtualization, as stated in another post) so they don't have to relearn everything every five years. In fact, the experience remains consistent well into the future. And finally, we can say that, again, the costs incurred with upgrading hardware every five years is much less than designing a system that needs to last at least fifteen years... not to mention, the system still has to be maintained, rigorously, so those costs don't just go away simply because the system has been designed to last a longer period of time.

If, after all of that, they're still set in their ways and aren't willing to take your advice, then I suppose you just have to do what they want... but it would be disingenuous for IT professionals to just do what the user asks on spec, because, as said before, most of the time they don't know or understand what they want. There's a reason why we're the professionals and they're not (i.e., I'm not going to tell an architect that I want a house without a foundation and expect him not to tell me I'm an idiot). Why do people insist on doing that when it comes to IT?

Re:forget it

[RichardJenkins]

Two minutes ago I was thinking the exact same thing. Then I realised if a small business owner tells you that 15 years ago he set up a system at minimal cost and is only now looking at changing because the hardware is noticeably ageing, you'd have a hard time explaining to him that it's going to be *harder* to set up a system with similar longevity nowadays.

I wouldn't know how to even approach the subject without sounding like I'm just trying to extract more cash out of him.

Re:forget it

[Kaboom13]

I wouldn't, because his original solution probably cost a small fortune. Compare PC prices from 1994 to pc prices today. You can probably buy 3 computers today for what each computer cost in 94. The downside of that is they may not last as long. That said, he's damn lucky if all his pc's have kept going for 15 years. In fact, the only reason he hasn't upgraded before is probably because of luck.

That said, while hardware designed to last 15 years is probably extremely cost-prohibitive, you can design the system to make replacing hardware very easy. Who cares about hardware failures if you can drop in a spare in minutes?

Anyways, if you want a system to last a long time with little management, there are some easy steps to take.

1. Use mature technology.
2. Use passive cooling.
3. Provide automated recovery. There will be failures in any system, make it easy to recover from.
4. Document and schedule regular maintenance, with reminders. For example, once a year blow the dust out of the pc's. Clear old entries out of the database. Run a hard drive/memory diagnostics to spot failures before it becomes a major issue.

Industrial PCs?

[Rorschach1]

How about industrial hardware? You'll probably pay at least twice as much as you would for a consumer desktop, but PCs made for industrial control applications tend to be a lot more rugged and build to serve for many years in harsh conditions. Sounds like you don't need a lot of processing power, so you could probably get by with a fanless system and eliminate a major failure (and noise) source.

I haven't bought anything from these guys, so I don't personally know anything about their quality, but SuperLogics has a barebones fanless Atom-based system for $315. Something like that might be a good start.

Replacement cost has drastically reduced

[maroberts]

The original systems probably cost $5k-$7k 10-15 years back. Systems to replace these will cost $1-2k and deliver much higher performance. Tell him not to worry about lasting 10 years as the investment cost is not so high. He needs a backup system which it sounds as though he hasn't had. It sounds as though his backup can simply be a couple of USB keys which would hold all his data.

You don't.

[SatanicPuppy]

15 years ago systems were night and day with the way they are now, and it's only going to get worse. After 10 years you won't be able to find anyone to work on the legacy stuff (unless you buy a proprietary unix system), and there is no guarantee for new parts.

The only way you've gotten away with it is that you have one application which has a very limited required environment, and drive interfaces have only changed once. If you stick with that philosophy, and get lucky with the drives again, you may be able to get by with something similar.

If you have to (which I don't recommend) then pick up a midrange quad core server with a ton of RAM and plenty of room for extra drives. Put a Linux distro on it: no hope of keeping up with Windows security for 15 years, and forget Mac, they're very prone to changing interfaces internally, and then discontinuing the old products.

Then use the server to push whatever app you need to some low duty desktops. You could use a web app, or a client/server desktop app. Again, you're probably good with a *nix.

Your biggest fear is drive space. In 15 years you won't be able to buy the drives you're using today, but there is no point in stockpiling them: they'll be dead in the box after 15 years. Solid state won't fail in the box (probably, but they're too new for it to have been tested) but you may have to replace them more often, depending on your utilization.

Just from personal experience, you're much better off buying a modest new system every 5 years, than a major new system every 15. It's cheaper, and the chance of a catastrophic failure are lower.

Re:You don't.

[Ian Alexander]

If you have to (which I don't recommend) then pick up a midrange quad core server with a ton of RAM and plenty of room for extra drives. Put a Linux distro on it: no hope of keeping up with Windows security for 15 years, and forget Mac, they're very prone to changing interfaces internally, and then discontinuing the old products.

Then use the server to push whatever app you need to some low duty desktops. You could use a web app, or a client/server desktop app. Again, you're probably good with a *nix.

I think that's overkill for one veterinarian.

I suggest going virtual on commodity hardware that changes out every half-decade or so. I suspect that as long as your virtual machine itself doesn't change the cost of buying hardware with the chops to run it will only decline over the years.

Or at least

[Colin Smith]

forever

Until the virtualization software is made obsolete by the vendor.
 

Consider changing IT cycles.

[barfy]

There are two possible solutions.

First is to change nothing. Why fix what isn't broke?

The second is to change your time frame entirely. 10-15 years is too long and too disruptive when the time comes, and you lose out on presumptive benefits in the middle.

Surely there are network aware applications that do what you want on standard systems today.

You want to be network aware. In todays world you do not want to be cut off from your customers, and more importantly you want to push of data integrity to others.

You should develop an annual budget for IT expenses that rolls over. You should be on a 3-5 year schedule rather than a 10-15 year schedule. If you do this, you will have more predictable costs. You won't have competitive disadvantage because of software. You will have advantages of providing more and more reliable services to your customers.

As in all businesses information and digital information can be used to extend and monetize your business in all sorts of ways. But only if you choose to keep on top of it, and you don't constrain your learning cycles to whatever is new now.

If you love your father...

[Fortunato_NC]

...you will tell him to get a professional to do this for him. Whether he understands it or not, your father's livelihood depends on having computers that are up and running, and from the limited picture you've given us, it sounds like he only thinks about information technology when something is going wrong.

Simply replacing his current hardware with newer gear is just kicking the problem down the road. In the last 15 years, there have been significant advances that he should consider taking advantage of, because they can make his business run more efficiently. But the only way to determine the "right" solution is to have someone who understands your father's business design a solution for him. A good place to start would be with the vendor who sold him his current setup, if they are still in business. They can most likely recommend a suitable hardware platform and assist with data migration to a newer, supported version of their software, and provide some sort of service arrangement that will ensure that these systems are maintained, not just used.

If you're bound and determined to do this yourself, the recommendations about virtualization are good ones - you can build a couple of VM images that you can backup to a USB flash drive nightly, or even better, several flash drives - learn about backup rotation schemes and design one that gives you the ability to recover two weeks worth of image data at least.

Up thread, someone said that if you do this, you will be supporting it for the next 10-15 years. You need to keep that in mind when deciding how to proceed. Best of luck!

Re:Moving parts are the main problem

[mmarlett]

Assuming that you have to rewrite his software, make it all web based (even if it runs off of one machine as a server without the Internet) and forgetaboutit. Keep it as basic and generic as possible and then the hardware will never matter.

Re:Moving parts are the main problem

[mysidia]

Yes, but they're going to be so expensive you'd be better off buying a pair of the cheap old-generation 20gb IDE (or SATA) hard drives.

Put the difference between the cost of your drive and a SSD in the bank (>$200). When one of your mechanical drives eventually fails, take that workstation out of service, and just use the other one to get by when that happens.

Use the money in the bank to acquire a second mechanical drive, or more likely that GOOD SSD, which in 5 years, will be dirt cheap and pretty reliable.

Re:Moving parts are the main problem

[Anpheus]

I'm going to go ahead and throw out the idea that maybe the people who develop these SSDs are smart enough to realize that.

No moving parts - or maybe VMWare

[goldcd]

Firstly - Running IT for your family is a pain. We all know you'll get nothing out of it apart from grief :) If you are feeling altruistic, then read on.
Secondly. Moving parts break. Heat breaks things. Fans sucking dog hairs into the system will break things. Assuming he's going to be using the same MS DOS app for the next decade or so, he does not need a powerful machine (which is handy). You just want some ultra-low power system (Atom? - how about one of those Asus desktop EEPC thingies - fit a cheap SSD if it doesn't come with one) - ideally just get something with a CPU and a PSU that doesn't need a fan, just a heatsink.
Thirdly it will fail. It's a PC for your Dad, it's critical to his business - therefore whatever you do will screw up. Install a backup solution. I'm assuming it's not creating vast amounts of data, so just something that'll spool the new data up the ADSL/cable/modem to a NAS/PC you can get your hands on somewhere out there.
Finally - you might want to consider VMWare. Performance hit isn't a problem in his case, and wouldn't it be nice if you could restore a complete failure/screwup in minutes (Oh and allow him to run a decent OS alongside the DOS app - as a bonus). Hardware's going to be cheap, so might as well buy a spare system. Anything does wrong - you just zap the image onto the new system and he's up and running whilst you try to work out whether the old PSU shorted, or the memory just came loose. If you feel very techy, could just setup the systems to mirror and implement a hot-standby (although possibly we're moving into the realms of overkill here).