The Remarketer

So you’re considering buying remarketed IT equipment (servers, routers, storage, etc.) but you’re not quite sure what to watch out for. Buying used IT gear is a great decision for stretching your budget but there are some questions you might want to ask when choosing a vendor so you get top-notch quality equipment and don’t get burned.

1. Are you getting the real deal?
Is the quoted equipment true manufacturer-branded hardware? (Example: Is the memory IBM or some 3rd party knock-off?) This is HUGE when you try to add hardware to existing maintenance agreements. No 3rd party hardware is typically supported. Sometimes dealers will try to slide 3rd party components into system quotes and hope you won’t notice - or worse yet, they won’t even mention it. Be sure to ask.

OK, maybe not quite yet… but Pandia Search Engine News is reporting that Google runs more than 1 million servers.

Pandia cites a Gartner analyst from the fair elven lands of Norway (the article is in Norwegian, so we’ll have to take their word for it).

Google reports that it spends some 200 to 250 million US dollars a year on IT equipment. We know that Google make use of a large number of cheap off the shelf servers using open source (and free) LINUX.

Earlier this year, Nat Torkington of the O’Reilly Radar blog, asked “Is ‘Open Source’ Now Completely Meaningless?”

Nat is ranting about firms who exhibited at the OSCON Open Source Convention this year who probably didn’t fit in. Nonetheless, is the clear definition of open source deteriorating? Is “Open Source” more of a way of thinking than a rigid software term? Let’s pretend for a minute it is, and explain how Vibrant’s line of used servers could be considered open source.

1. We don’t care what OS you load onto it once you’ve gotten it… Linux, Windows, AIX, Solaris, go for it!

This month Google released their compiled data on hard drive performance from their datacenters around the world. When you’re Google, this type of study is far beyond the anecdotal reports that can be found on gear forums like “I picked up these piece of $&@# Drives from (xyz low-end drive manufacturer) and one already crapped out!”

Instead, Google basically posted “We’ve got these datacenters all over the world with over 100,000 cheap SATA and PATA drives between them and a bunch crapped out!”, oh yeah and here is some great insight into the circumstances under which this occurred. Over 5 years, they recorded every failure and many variables and then repurposed it into an independent report unprecedented in size.

“What is your ‘list price’ for this used IBM Server?”

We get this type of question pretty frequently, particularly when we’re selling to a large Fortune 500 Corporation, University or Government Organization. It is almost a knee-jerk reaction to ask as these buyers are conditioned to negotiate discounting directly with manufacturers such as Sun, IBM, HP and EMC. We also get similar questions regarding “educational” or “volume discounts.”

While used IT hardware is a fantastic way to save on IT infrastructure costs, negotiating pricing here can present some unique challenges.

Shipping high-end servers and storage equipment across the country or to the other side of the globe can potentially be a scary proposition if you don’t have a freight forwarder you can trust. At Vibrant, we do all we can to ensure a quality product arrives at our customer’s dock - so choosing reliable freight vendors cannot be overlooked.

Adcom is one of these top-notch partners for us and our rep, Chris Kosvic, was kind enough to answer some questions we had on how they ensure safe passage of our valuable products - and what we can do to help them succeed.

It was July 2005, all seemed well with the world and “HP World” was just weeks away. Thousands of HP-UX users were preparing for a week of sessions with fellow Interex users. HP partners had ordered up glossies and banners while used HP 9000 resellers had made arrangements for broker get-togethers. Then, Interex, the independent organization responsible for organizing the user conference, went under and HP World was no more.

“HP Technology Forum 2006″ is the follow-up to last year’s bittersweet replacement conference, and I’m waiting to see whether our clients and partners return from it with the exuberance that they once did from HP World.

“This Server we bought… um, it’s DOA.”
Nobody ever likes that call, So what do you do next?

Keep the following in mind before proceeding: You’re not a server tech, so tread lightly here. However, you can solve some issues before calling a tech, or at least collect some good info to help them out. Finally, stay relaxed (with a sense of urgency).

IBM xSeries 205 Server with neon ground effects.

This is a photo of a used IBM Server that was sitting in our staging area, waiting to be packed and shipped out to a client today (minus the neon glow).

Darcy, our marketing maven, played around with Photoshop and whipped up this prototype visual of the type of customization we could offer by teaming up with Vibrant Performance (see previous post). I wonder if they also do spoilers?

We do sell more than just used servers, but for our very first post, “New and Used Servers, Storage and Networking Hardware and Upgrades, New Blog: The Remarketer,” doesn’t quite have the right ring to it. Then again, it’s just you, me, some Vibrant staffers and my Mom reading this for now. Hi Mom.

We’ll work hard to increase our readership though with a unique perspective on the IT Industry. We’ll bring honest commentary, market insight and some fun articles and promotions inviting our clients, future clients and partners to the table.