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It’s no secret that data center managers are looking at
every possible way to maximize budget without sacrificing services. One of the
easiest ways to save between 50% to 70% on hardware acquisition costs is to buy
refurbished IT equipment. Besides the obvious cost savings, there are other
benefits. Purchasing refurbished items can help maintain and extend the life of
legacy systems. It’s also a cost-effective way to implement redundant systems for
failover or testing and development. There is some evidence that shows
refurbished hardware experiences lower failure rates than new equipment because
they’ve been “burned in,” tested and remanufactured to eliminate faults. Extending
the useful life of IT equipment through refurbishing is also an extremely green
practice. For example, it takes approximately 20,000 pounds of raw material to
produce a single 5-pound laptop, which should make purchasing refurbished IT
equipment a central point to any organization’s green IT initiatives.
Market Demand for Refurbished IT Equipment
Many original equipment manufacturers (and re-manufacturers)
are reporting increased interest in refurbished IT hardware. Cisco (NASDAQ:
CSCO) has seen a 22% increase in customers asking for refurbished items over
the previous year. It has also become very common for consumers to request
prices for refurbished goods as part of the quotation process. Doing more with
less is clearly a current business imperative.
Sensing the demand for refurbished goods, many manufacturers
and vendors are setting up special channels and programs for refurbished goods.
HP’s Renew Program, for example, offers an extensive inventory of state-of-the-art
HP (NYSE: HPQ) technology that has been returned for various reasons. These
products are certified to perform as new, with the same on-site warranty and
support options as new items.
Resellers and integrators are another great resource for
cash-strapped IT managers considering refurbished products. VARs often carry a
broad range of products from various manufacturers, which can be a tremendous
asset to customers who may not run homogenous systems. These vendors often have
the expertise to help guide purchasers toward the right solution for their
needs and can even install and maintain the system, if need required.
One such reseller/integrator is Irvine, California-based
RICOM. “RICOM is committed to providing cost-effective, environmentally
friendly refurbished products to our customers. We deal with equipment that has
been certified to perform as new from the leading manufacturers in the networking
and storage industries,” states Richard Stasior, RICOM’s founder and president.
“Most of these products carry a full warranty and are eligible for the same
support programs as new products, yet can be bought for a fraction of their
full retail prices.” RICOM can be contacted through their website at http://www.shopricom.com.
Business Continuity
Refurbished hardware can help organizations maintain
business operations while deploying new technologies. Replicating an IT
environment can be expensive, but necessary for engineering labs, disaster
recovery or failover/redundancy. The cost of reducing serious business risk can
be significantly reduced through the use of refurbished technology. Refurbished
items are also a perfect solution for stocking a spares inventory.
Investment in legacy systems—and their useful life cycle—can
be extended by replacing older, under-performing components with high
performance refurbished equipment. Some applications simply won’t run on newer
technologies until upgrades of the application are made available, effectively
locking users in to their legacy systems. Replacing components in these systems
with refurbished pieces allows IT managers to maintain or augment performance
of these older systems at a reasonable cost while using equipment that has been
qualified for use in the current network. Replacing key components on an
as-needed basis is a perfect interim plan prior to migration to a new network.
Some may question the reliability of refurbished
equipment—after all, it is reasonable to assume the equipment was returned for
some valid operability issue. However, that’s not necessarily the case. According
to Jim Lynch, Computer Recycling & Reuse Director for TechSoup’s GreenTech
Program, the industry standard has a less than 12 percent failure rate. That’s
the equivalent to the annualized failure rate (AFR) published by Gartner for a
desktop computer in its fourth year of use. To give context to failure rates,
laptops have an expected AFR of 15% in the first year and 22% in their fourth.
Most refurbished IT equipment is sold with full warranties
that are the equivalent to those offered on new products. Further peace of mind
can be had with service level agreements or other extended support contracts.
Check with your reseller for service/support options for refurbished
equipment.
It’s Greener Than You Think
Refurbished IT equipment fits many organizations’ needs for
IT lifecycle management by offering factory spec performance, full warranties
and support at greatly discounted prices. However, utilizing refurbished
equipment is also an extremely green practice. It has been estimated that over
40% of landfill mass is discarded electronic equipment—equipment that consumed
vast natural resources and energy to produce before it was even put into
production. Extending the useful life of these products can reap enormous
environmental benefits.
The initial manufacturing of routers, switches, security,
and storage devices requires tremendous amounts of energy. The casings for IT
equipment are made from plastic, which is petroleum-based. Internal components
contain toxic chemicals and compounds like mercury.
In the book Computers and the Environment, Understanding and Managing Their Impacts, Dr. Eric
Williams and Ruediger Kuehr found that the average 53-pound desktop computer
and CRT monitor requires 530 pounds of fossil fuels, 50 pounds of chemicals,
and 3,330 pounds of water to produce. Adding additional life to computers saves
5 to 20 times more energy than recycling over the computer's life cycle. That
means it’s more environmentally friendly to extend technology life by
refurbishing than to replace and recycle every three years, which is the
industry average.
Dr. Williams also finds that 75% of the energy a computer
consumes during its lifetime is actually used during its production—before a
new computer is ever even sold. By doubling its useful lifespan, refurbishers
are cutting that initial consumption number in half.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Electronics
Environmental Benefits Calculator, the environmental savings for refurbishing
computers is approximately 25 times more beneficial than recycling every three
to five years. The calculator considers use or consumption of raw materials,
CO2, energy, toxic emissions and other considerations.
Next Steps
Whether you’re a data center manager actively shopping for
new equipment or you are simply interested in learning about greener, more
cost-effective ways to maintain or enhance business systems, refurbished IT
equipment should be on your list. Contact a reseller that has specific
expertise in refurbished equipment. They can help you choose, install and
maintain the right equipment for your environment and budget.
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