Client Portal
The short answer
For a business with fewer than 100 staff, plan to replace the firewall and the Wi-Fi access points every four to five years, switches and routers every five to seven years, and UPS batteries every three to five years. Good Cat6 or Cat6A cabling should last 15 years or more. The trigger is rarely the equipment failing: it is the manufacturer ending security updates, or the business outgrowing what the hardware can do.
Warranty tells you who pays if something breaks. Support life tells you how long it stays safe to use. Plan around support life.
Network equipment is the part of IT nobody notices until it stops. A switch can sit in a comms cupboard blinking away for ten years, and because it still works, nobody plans to replace it. Then a firmware flaw is published that will never be fixed for that model, or the new Wi-Fi access points need more power than the old switch can supply, and an orderly upgrade becomes an urgent one.
This guide is for small and medium businesses with fewer than 100 users: one site or a few, a firewall, a handful of switches, wireless across the office and perhaps a warehouse. It is the kind of network a 30-person accounting practice in Frankston or a manufacturer in Carrum Downs runs on. It is not a guide to enterprise core or carrier networks, which run to different rules and budgets.
How long each piece of network equipment should last
These are planning figures, not promises. Equipment can run longer, and sometimes has to be replaced sooner, but a business that budgets to these numbers rarely gets caught out.
| Equipment | Plan to replace | What usually forces it |
|---|---|---|
| Firewall | 4 to 5 years | Security updates and subscriptions end, or the firewall cannot inspect traffic at the speed of a faster internet service. |
| Main (core) switch | 5 to 7 years | End of manufacturer support, or the business needs faster links between switches and to the server or storage. |
| Access switches | 5 to 7 years, often physically fine for 10 or more | End of firmware support, or not enough Power over Ethernet for newer access points, cameras and phones. |
| Wi-Fi access points | 4 to 5 years | New Wi-Fi standards, more devices per person, and the management platform dropping support for older models. |
| Router or internet gateway | 5 to 7 years | End of support, or the internet service outgrowing the hardware. |
| UPS | Batteries 3 to 5 years, the unit 8 to 10 | Batteries lose capacity with age, and much faster in heat. |
| Structured cabling | 15 to 20 years or more | Rarely replaced unless the building is refitted. |
| Cloud management licences | Renewed on term, usually 1 to 5 years | On many platforms a lapsed licence stops management, and on some it stops the equipment. |
The pattern is worth noticing. The parts that face the internet, and the parts that talk to laptops and phones, age fastest. The parts that sit in the wall last longest.
Warranty is not the same as support life
Most confusion about network lifecycle comes from treating these as one thing.
Warranty covers hardware faults. Business switches and access points often come with long or “limited lifetime” warranties, which usually means the life of the product as the manufacturer defines it, not forever. Firewalls are commonly sold with a bundle of one to five years of security subscriptions, and when that bundle ends, the features that keep the firewall current stop updating even though the box keeps passing traffic.
Support life is how long the manufacturer keeps releasing firmware and security fixes for a model. Manufacturers publish end-of-sale and end-of-support dates, and once a model passes the last one, any new flaw found in it stays open for good.
Australian businesses also have the consumer guarantees. The ACCC confirms they cover goods and services bought by a business for $100,000 or less, which takes in almost every network purchase a business this size makes, and they apply whatever the manufacturer’s warranty says. What they cannot do is make a manufacturer keep writing security updates for a model it has retired.
End of support is a security deadline
Firewalls, routers and VPN gateways sit at the edge of the network, facing the internet, which makes them a favourite target. In February 2025 the Australian Signals Directorate published mitigation strategies for edge devices, and one of the plainest is to find any end-of-life device at the network edge and remove or replace it.
The Essential Eight treats network equipment like any other system. Its firmware is patched on a short timeline, faster still for internet-facing devices when an exploit exists, and an operating system the vendor no longer supports is replaced. ASD’s end-of-support guidance for small and medium businesses says the same thing in simpler terms: check when your devices will stop receiving updates, and upgrade before they do. A firewall that still works but no longer receives updates is not a cost saving. It is an open door with a date on it. Our guide to the Essential Eight for small business covers where this fits in the wider framework.
Why Wi-Fi ages fastest
Wireless changes faster than anything else on the network, because it has to keep up with the laptops and phones people bring in. The Australian Communications and Media Authority opened the lower 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi in March 2022, and the Wi-Fi Alliance began certifying Wi-Fi 7 in January 2024. An office still running access points bought in 2018 or 2019 is two generations behind the devices now arriving on its desks.
That does not mean replacing access points every time a new standard appears. It means replacing them when they are due anyway, or when coverage and capacity no longer suit how the space is used, and choosing current-generation equipment when you do.
Wi-Fi and switching also need to be planned together. Access points are powered over the network cable, and each generation tends to draw more. A switch built for the PoE+ standard supplies up to 30 watts a port; some newer access points want more than that, which the higher-power 802.3bt standard provides. Replacing the access points without checking the switch’s power budget is how an afternoon upgrade turns into a second purchase order.
UPS batteries and the comms cupboard
A UPS battery is a consumable, not a fixture. Sealed lead-acid UPS batteries are rated for a room at around 20 to 25°C, and the accepted rule across the battery industry is that every 10°C of sustained heat above that roughly halves their life. A comms cabinet in an unventilated cupboard, or on a warehouse mezzanine through a Melbourne summer, can run well above that range.
The practical rule: put the UPS somewhere with airflow, run its self-test, and replace the batteries on a schedule rather than discovering during a power cut that they hold two minutes instead of twenty. The unit itself usually lasts eight to ten years.
Cabling is the long-term asset
The cabling in the walls and ceiling outlasts everything plugged into it. Good Cat6 cabling installed today should serve 15 years or more, and Cat6A, which carries 10 gigabit Ethernet over the full 100 metre run, is the sensible choice for a new fit-out or a major refit because it will still be fast enough for the access points and switches that come two generations later.
In Australia, data cabling has to be installed by a registered cabler working to the wiring rules, and the cabler should give you a written statement that the work complies. The ACMA cabling provider rules set out what that means. Keep that statement and the test results with your network records: they are what tells the next installer what is in the walls.
Cloud management has made lifecycle simpler
A decade ago, knowing what was on a small business network meant someone walking the building with a clipboard. Most business-grade firewalls, switches and access points can now be managed from a cloud console, and that has changed lifecycle planning more than any new standard.
- One view of everything. Every device at every site, with its model, serial number, firmware version and, on many platforms, its warranty and support status.
- Firmware on a schedule. Updates can be planned across all devices at once, after hours, instead of one box at a time.
- Configuration kept off the box. The settings live in the console, so a failed or retired switch can be replaced and the new one picks up the same configuration.
- Alerts before people notice. A switch port failing, an access point dropping offline or a firewall running hot shows up as an alert, not as a phone call from the front desk.
For a managed service provider, that turns lifecycle planning from an annual audit into a report. It also comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you buy.
- The licence is part of the product. On many platforms the management licence runs for a fixed term, and letting it lapse stops management or, on some platforms, the equipment itself. Budget the renewal as part of the lifecycle and align the renewal dates so they do not arrive one at a time.
- Changing platform usually means changing hardware. Choose a platform deliberately and standardise on it, rather than collecting a different brand for each purchase.
- The console account should be in the business’s name. Your IT provider administers it, but the business owns it. This is one of the keys we cover in who holds the keys to your business.
How to plan network replacement without surprises
- Keep a register. For every firewall, switch, access point, router and UPS: model, serial, purchase date, warranty end, end-of-support date, licence renewal date and location.
- Replace by date, not by failure. Put each item into a three-year plan against its support date, so the cost lands in a budget rather than an emergency.
- Group the work sensibly. Replace access points and the access switches that power them together. Time a firewall replacement for when its subscriptions are due.
- Buy the support term with the hardware. Equipment bought without its licence or subscription is not cheaper, it is unfinished.
- Avoid consumer and grey-import gear. It may not carry an Australian warranty, may not work with a business management platform, and often reaches end of support sooner.
Our hardware replacement calculator helps put rough numbers against a plan, and the cheapest laptop is rarely the cheapest outcome makes the same argument for computers. If you are setting up a new office or moving premises, start with our guide to setting up a business network.
Where Agile IT fits
Under AgileMANAGED, the firewall, switches and Wi-Fi are part of the core infrastructure we are responsible for, managed through AgileCONNECT alongside the internet service that feeds them. We keep the register, watch the end-of-support and licence dates, and put replacements into your technology roadmap, which AgileSTRATEGY reviews with you each quarter, so a network refresh is something you planned for, not something that happened to you. When new equipment is needed, AgileEQUIP supplies hardware chosen to be managed properly, not just installed.
We are based in Mornington and look after networks for practices, manufacturers and warehouses across Carrum Downs and the South East. If you are not sure how old your network is, or when it stops being supported, start with a conversation and we will tell you what you have and what is due.