Refurbished equipment, where the new price buys nothing
The previous generation of servers did not get slower when the new one arrived. For test environments, failover, a second site and a good deal of ordinary production, refurbished equipment is the most sensible money that goes into a rack. This page says where that holds and where it catches up with you within two years.
Four places where the new price buys nothing extra
In all four it is about availability and not about the latest generation.
- Test, development and acceptance environmentsThese machines do not have to be fast, they have to resemble production. Refurbished hardware of the same generation as production does that better than new hardware of a different generation, and costs a fraction.
- Failover and a second siteEquipment standing ready for the day it goes wrong sits idle most of the year. Paying the new price for that is the most expensive way to cover a risk.
- Extending what is already thereAn extra node in an existing cluster should be the same generation as the rest. That is often no longer available from the manufacturer and is available on the refurbished market.
- Network equipment in a fixed spotAn access switch in a riser cupboard does exactly the same in eight years as on day one, as long as it gets updates. This is the category where the difference between new and refurbished is least noticeable.
Four things a device has been through before it reaches you
Refurbished is not a certification mark. This is what it means with us, and it is the list to hold any other supplier to.
Wiped and reset to factory settings
Configurations, passwords, certificates and the previous owner’s data should be gone before the device moves on. A switch that still carries the old configuration is not a bargain but a leak.
Tested under load
Not just powered on, but run with load on processors, memory and drives. Failures surface on warm equipment and not on a machine that has been on for ten minutes.
Wear parts assessed and replaced
Fans, batteries and drives with many running hours are the components that give up first. Assessing those is the difference between refurbished and second-hand.
Firmware updated and provenance recorded
The latest available firmware on it, and the serial number recorded. That last one is what you need later to take out maintenance or parts on this specific unit.
Three risks to rule out beforehand
All three only surface once the machine is already in the rack.
- How long does this model still get updatesThis is the most important question and it is rarely asked. A generation dropping off firmware support next year is not a saving but a postponement, and on network equipment it is a security problem as well.
- Is the licence includedOn storage and networking part of the functionality hangs on a licence that does not automatically travel with the hardware. Check that against the serial number, before you buy and not after.
- Who repairs it when it failsRefurbished equipment without an arrangement for parts is a bet on the market. Buy it together with maintenance or with a spare on the shelf, and the sum works again.
What we supply refurbished
Per group the brand and the question to ask with it. That question is never the age, but how long the model still gets firmware.
- ServersDell, HPE, IBM, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Supermicro and Cisco. Ask for the generation and not the year of manufacture: one model name often covers three generations with different support.
- StorageNetApp, Dell, HPE, IBM, Hitachi Vantara, Quantum and Synology. Here the licence is the trap; features that were switched on for the previous owner do not travel along by themselves.
- NetworkingCisco, Juniper, Arista, HPE Aruba, Extreme Networks, Brocade and NETGEAR. The category where refurbished is least noticeable, provided the model still gets security updates.
- Inside and alongsideMemory from Micron and Kingston, drives from Seagate, Western Digital and Samsung, processors from Intel and AMD. A refurbished machine with new drives is often the better sum.
What goes with this
Buying refurbished hangs on maintenance and on parts.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
Is there a warranty on refurbished equipment?
What we supply carries a term, and it is on the quote before you order. Refurbished equipment without a term is a gamble, and then the risk merely shifts from the budget to the administrator.
How do I know whether a model still gets firmware?
We look that up per model with the manufacturer and it goes in the proposal. This is the most important question when buying refurbished and at the same time the one asked least; on network equipment it is a security matter as well as a support matter.
Can I mix refurbished equipment with what I already have?
That is often exactly the reason to buy it: an extra node in an existing cluster should be the same generation as the rest, and that is usually no longer available from the manufacturer. Do watch the firmware version, because it has to be able to line up with the machines already in place.
Work out what refurbished saves
Say which machine you are looking for and what it is for. You get a proposal with the new and the refurbished route side by side, and the answer to how long this model still gets updates.
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