IT estate management: lifespan, renewal in waves and secure equipment disposal

• Indicative lifespan Laptops 4 to 5 years, desktops 5 to 6, servers 5 to 7, switches and access points 6 to 8; firewalls for as long as the manufacturer publishes security updates.
• Triggers for early replacement End of updates, end of warranty in critical roles, or a cost in lost hours higher than that of a new device.
• Tax depreciation 33.33% a year in Portugal; the equipment is fully depreciated in 3 years, which does not mean it has to be replaced.
• End of life Secure data erasure and handover to a licensed WEEE operator, with an e-GAR waste transport record as proof.

The law sets no deadlines. This is the guidance DataRoad applies when planning the estates it manages, based on 11 years in the market. It is for budgeting, not an obligation.

End of support is the date after which the manufacturer stops fixing security flaws. The device keeps working, but every new vulnerability stays open. On a laptop it is a risk; on a firewall, which guards the entrance to the network, it is unacceptable.

Depreciated does not mean finished

Portuguese Regulatory Decree no. 25/2009 sets a depreciation rate of 33.33% a year for computers and IT equipment: after 3 years the book value is zero. That is useful for budgeting, but a well-chosen laptop remains productive beyond that point.

1. End of security updates — Windows 10 support ended on 14 October 2025; PCs that cannot run Windows 11 fall into this category. See the alternatives in our guide to the end of Windows 10 support.
2. Critical equipment out of warranty — for a server or firewall, recovery after a fault comes to depend on finding parts.
3. Repeated repairs — the same device going to support several times in one quarter already costs more than it seems.
4. Incompatibility — software that will not run, Wi-Fi that cannot keep up, displays that will not connect.

The price of new equipment is on the invoice; the cost of the old is diluted in lost minutes. An example with explicit assumptions:

• Employee cost €25 per hour, total cost to the company.
• Time lost 15 minutes a day on a 5-year-old laptop (start-ups, freezes, battery).
• Working days 220 a year.

0.25 h × €25 × 220 days = €1,375 a year, for a single workstation — close to the price of a new professional laptop, paid every year. Multiplied by 10 workstations, it is the equivalent of several new computers a year that the company pays for without having them. For simple roles or rarely used devices, keeping them still makes sense. More detail in what a slow computer really costs.

Replacing on failure means an idle employee and a rushed purchase at whatever the price is that day. In the estate management we carry out, renewal follows a plan:

• Dated inventory Purchase date, end of warranty and end of support for each device. Starting point: the IT estate audit checklist.
• Warranty matched to lifespan For laptops and servers, covering the whole period of use avoids surprises in the final year.
• 20% to 25% of the estate per year With 4- to 5-year cycles, the budget no longer has peaks.
• Network as a project Firewalls, switches and access points replaced in a planned window, outside working hours.

To put this into figures, use our guide to the 2027 IT budget.

• Secure erasure Deleting files or formatting is not enough. The international reference is NIST SP 800-88 (revision 2, September 2025); for encrypted disks, destroying the key is a recognised technique.
• Record Serial number, erasure method, date and person responsible for each device disposed of.
• WEEE According to the Portuguese Environment Agency, under Decree-Law no. 152-D/2017, businesses must hand this equipment to a licensed treatment operator or compliance scheme, not to collection points for private individuals. The e-GAR proves where it went.

In 2022, the União das Freguesias de Massamá e Monte Abraão awarded DataRoad a public contract to install and configure a new enterprise server, with UPS, local and cloud backup, IT consultancy and migration of existing systems and data. The core equipment was replaced in a planned way, with power protection and backups renewed at the same time. See the Massamá and Monte Abraão project.

Under IT Unlimited contracts, the inventory, end-of-warranty and end-of-support alerts and the renewal plan are all part of estate management.

• Regulatory Decree no. 25/2009 — Portal das Finanças
• Windows 10 Home and Pro lifecycle — Microsoft Learn
• NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 — csrc.nist.gov
• WEEE frequently asked questions — Portuguese Environment Agency

We inventory your equipment, identify what is out of warranty or support and deliver a wave-based renewal plan, with priorities and a budget estimate — no-obligation proposal. More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support.

See also: on-site support for SMEs · managed Microsoft 365 for businesses.