Refurbished IT Equipment Has a Place in Your Data Center (and Budget)

by

Richard Stasior

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.

Richard Stasior is a technology industry veteran and owner of RICOM, a technology reseller, integrator and managed services provider based in Irvine, California. For more information about this topic, please visit http://www.shopricom.com

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