IT Equipment Lifecycle Policy

Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to establish and define a lifecycle for all IT equipment. This is intended to provide a balance between optimum use and on-going maintenance costs to enable staff to use the latest software with ease.

Scope
This policy applies to all University owned and leased IT equipment including PCs workstations, laptops, printers, mobile phones, PDA’s and other hand-held devices, servers, switches, routers, and so on.

Definitions

1. "Primary Deployment" refers to the time period for which new equipment should be used.
2. "Secondary Deployment" refers to a period of up to two years after the completion of the primary deployment of the IT equipment.

Guidelines
The University will maintain a multiple year lifecycle for all University owned and leased IT equipment to ensure that it is replaced on a regular basis. IT equipment becomes more expensive to service and support as it grows older. All IT equipment purchased will be subject to a defined deployment life-cycle. Two types of deployment lifecycles exist that relate to the use of the equipment, either Primary or Secondary deployment.

Primary Deployment of an IT equipment is that which has a “life” of up to the time-frames as shown in the table below, after which time it is replaced or deemed suitable for secondary deployment. Such equipment is utilised in high use and high availability areas, and must be covered (where possible) by full on-site warranty and associated support levels. In the case of critical equipment, it may also be effective to retain on-site spares (with a “return to depot” or consignment arrangement) that can be replaced at short notice and returned to the manufacturer for repair. The time-frames normally reflect manufacturers normal and extended warranty periods for new IT equipment.

Primary Deployment Time Frames (recommended):

Secondary Deployment occurs where equipment is reassigned to a less-critical role. It is, the goal of University to – whenever possible – reassign IT equipment in order to achieve full return on investment (ROI) from the equipment and to minimize expenditure on new hardware when feasible reassignment of retired equipment deemed suitable for secondary deployment to another business function will do instead. Secondary deployment can occur for a period up to a maximum of two years, per the table below.

Secondary Deployment Time Frames (recommended):

After this time, the equipment is considered “obsolete”. Once equipment is classified as being “obsolete”, they must be disposed of according to the IT Equipment Disposal policy.

Deployment of IT equipment is based on the following:

The determination of primary deployment and transition to secondary deployment is made by the owner of the equipment in conjunction with this policy, its use and IT Services.