Server end of lease and purchasing options

[TMBS]

Hi

 

Our servers are coming to the end of their lease and we have the option to:

 

Pass title to the equipment to a nominated independent third party of your choice for the one-off fee.

 

Grant the School indefinite continued-use of the equipment for the one-off fee.

 

Who could the nominated third party be? Could this be our governors or PTA? Why can't we just buy as a school? All very confusing!

 

Thanks

[Aprice]

I presume the third party could be the school, I don't see why they would care who gets the kit so long as they get paid.

 

You are right, very oddly worded though!

[djm968]

I would presume a managed service/support provider would probably be the third party. It's very generic wording but covers the scenario that a managed service/support provider could "buy" the servers then build the cost into a support contract that they offer back to the School, but I agree, I wouldn't have thought that it shouldn't matter to leasing company who pays for it, as long at they get their money. Edited September 23, 2021 by djm968

[mikkydoos]

Why not just buy your own? It always end up cheaper than leasing even with manufacturer support costs.

 

I think what they mean is 'Buy our old kit from us and you can keep it and look after it yourself'

Edited September 23, 2021 by mikkydoos

[djm968]

Why not just buy your own? It always end up cheaper than leasing even with manufacturer support costs.

 

Think this depends on how much they want for their old kit, how much time you have to migrate the domain over to new hardware before the lease ends, the cost of the new hardware and if you can't do the migration yourself, the cost of the migration. Sometimes it not just as simple as "buy your own"

Edited September 23, 2021 by djm968

[mikkydoos]

True. Depends on your setup and a million other factors. Just my two penneth.

[djm968]

True. Depends on your setup and a million other factors. Just my two penneth.

 

I do agree though, leasing would not be my preferred option and certainly not for server hardware but sometimes you don't have choice. The lease/setup may have been inherited from the previous NM/BM etc. The best advice I can give, is try to get an idea of what the server hardware is worth and compare that with what they want you to pay. It will give you a base line to work from and you might be able to negotiate a lower cost.

[steveg]

I think it is to do with finance regs, the third party will have to be someone other than the school. If the school buys it directly then it would have been a hire purchase agreement and not a lease.

 

Normally you can lease for another year and then the company can either write the goods off as no value, or as you have mentioned let you keep it indefinitely.

[TMBS]

Thanks everyone. Our Business Manager prefers to lease so they can budget for costs better...

 

From the information I've had we can't just buy it back as a school, it has to be this independent third party, which is frustrating! We were going to send back and buy new but won't have enough time to do that and reconfigure the network in the October half term, when the lease ends. So it will have to be a Summer job.

[slugshead]

Assuming that the end of the lease is also the end of the warranty period?

 

If you picked the second option and kept the equipment and supported it yourself, what's the cost of a warranty extension? Make sure this is arranged before the warranty lapses otherwise there will be an onboarding fee from the manufacturer.

 

Weigh the cost of the warranty extension with the one off fee vs the cost of new.

 

If you're virtual, it's a doddle to move everything across to the new hosts and drop the old servers on the owners doorstep

[johnlevis]

If you decide to take the second option, we can offer third party extended warranties.

 

If you want to get in touch I can run through this with you.

 

John