The weakness for non major brand servers used to be the Server management software. The Intel LANDesk Client Management software is better than ever and really helps to even the playing field. You can remotely connect to your server to see every detail and logs that detail what is going on. You can use a web interface and connect from anywhere. We checked the CPU air blowers' rotation speed remotely. If one of them stops or anything abnormal happens, you can have the software alert you by SMS or e-mail.
If you want to check it locally, you can find the utility called Supero Doctor II to access system health.
