Almost as a reflex, I refuse those extended service warranties the consumer electronics retailers push to boost their bottom line. Because of them, most people view warranties as scams rather than the insurance policies they were originally intended to be. Unfortunately, this thinking gets extended to the critical hardware in the server room. E-mail servers, file/print servers, domain controllers, and more sit in server rooms years past when the manufacturers warranty expires.  This is a bad situation.

What happens when an extended warranty is purchased?  A client of ours had a system board die in their warrantied file/print server. Within four hours, a technician arrived with a replacement system board and the server was back online, all covered under the warranty and free of charge.

Without the warranty, the alternative scenario plays out like this: a replacement system board has to be ordered via overnight mail, which may arrive in 2 business days depending on the ordering deadline for next day delivery. If you don't have IT in-house, you coordinate with your IT consultant to install the part, at their regular hourly rate.  Besides the costs of the part and service, figure in opportunity costs for lost productivity or billable hours for the day or more that the server is down.

What is worse than the scenario above?  Not knowing whether your servers and network equipment is under warranty or not. At the very least, you should perform an audit so you know the risks you are running.