Vibrant finally made a Harlem Shake Video (and we’re sorry internets).

As a reseller of remarketed servers and data center hardware, we looked around and were surprised at how few IT Hardware companies had made one, so we thought, why not? Plus, it wasn’t a bad time. Anytime you get to dance on a server rack dressed as a gentleman luchador, you’ve got to do it, right?

Below is a collection of IT hardware companies who have done the Harlem Shake.

Vibrant Technologies

Brocade

EMC

Intel

Rackspace

Tech Data Cisco Team

That’s some pretty (wonderfully) terrible Harlem Shake action all around, and we’re glad we could take part!

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.

2. Who exactly are you dealing with?
Is the outfit you’re buying from a legit company? Check their website, Google the company name, ask for references, referrals and current customers. You might even do a map search of their address just to see if they’re in an office building (and not some random residential address).

3. Is there a warranty?
What happens if the products show up and don’t work, or cause system errors? Can someone troubleshoot it? Is there tech support? Who do you call? How fast can the problem be solved? A solid warranty as well as a strong technical staff are great indicators of a company that is proud to stand behind its products.

4. Supplier or Broker?
Do they have complete knowledge of the products or are they just buying from other dealers, and don’t own it? Anyone can sell parts, just check eBay. But you will want a company who will warranty products and guarantee work done. These companies own large inventories of products and quality check everything in their own technical labs. Shipments will arrive quicker, cheaper and with greater peace of mind from stocking vendors.

5. Too Good to be True?
If it seems too good to be true, it often is. When offered unbelievable low prices, something is being sacrificed. Is it quality? Authenticity? Be sure to find out and get it in writing (something to the effect of “the following product is in perfect working condition and guaranteed to be IBM original”). There are some great deals on refurbished and used equipment, but sometimes these truly are too good to be true.

Michelle Clough is an account executive at Vibrant Technologies working with clients from various industries and has over 10 years experienced in the remarketed IT industry. Contact her with further questions or if you have IT equipment to buy or sell.

email: mclough@vibrant.com
phone: 952-653-1709

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.

If we say that Google spends 900 USD on each machine, and the same sum on storage and peripherals, it is a fair guess that Google uses some 1 million servers in its data centers.

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Pandia goes on to speculate that Google likely installs 100,000 new servers per quarter in datacenters around the world. That would place Google as the 4th largest server producer in the world after HP, Dell and IBM.

But does Google really have 1 million servers? I’m not so sure. The logic above is fuzzy at best and others have estimated they only have 450,000 systems. My guess is reality falls somewhere in between these impressive numbers.

I wonder how many servers are purely dedicated to facilitating searches for LOLcats?

We know that Google primarily uses white box linux-based server models and blade servers, but should they ever need memory or CPU upgrades, Vibrant sells a wide range of Used Servers. Our sales reps hear “1 million servers” and can’t help but drool.

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!
2. Furthermore, we don’t care which manufacturer you want to buy, we carry Sun, HP, IBM and Dell. If you want to add 3rd party drives or memory, we’ll do that too!
3. Finally, we don’t lock anybody into set server configurations. Instead, we’ll custom configure a system to meet their needs.

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OK, so can we respectfully call our used server products “open source”?

Nah! It just doesn’t feel right to use the term when it comes to hardware.

(But we will custom paint a server if you prefer your Big Blue IBM server in orange. That has to count for something, right!?)

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.

Here are some of Google’s hard drive findings:

1) Temperature surprisingly didn’t have much influence on failure rates.

Warm or cold, Google didn’t report much statistical variance here.

2) Older Drives fail more often but drive use didn’t factor into it as much.

We would be concerned about this as a used IT reseller, except we don’t see many hard drives lately anyhow due to privacy concerns. When we rebuild systems these days we seem to primarily use new drives from the manufacturer to complete configurations.

3) Some cheap drives are better than other cheap drives

At one point Google mentioned that certain manufacturer’s drives definitely failed more often than others. Unfortunately, they didn’t mention which manufacturer’s hard drives failed though and it is probably not in Google’s best interests to share that information. If that ever leaks out, it could be really damaging to a manufacturer like IBM, Seagate or Maxtor.

4) SMART is pretty smart (most of the time)

S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) scans that show a drive problem are very likely to fail within 60 days. Google determined that after receiving a SMART error, drives are 39 times more likely to fail than a drive that isn’t reporting one. Unfortunately, many other drives will also fail that never show a SMART warning (36% of SATA disks that failed were never detected by SMART).

A Slashdot contributor questioned whether or not Google’s study was useful, but I definitely think it is. As one commenter “spineboy” stated “To me it’s useful – if I get a SMART warning, then I’m definitely backing up my drive and will replace it before it croaks.”

“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, and HP. 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.

The Secondary IT Industry and price markers:

The used IT hardware industry is essentially an open market. Hardware is traded as a second-hand commodity that can rise or fall depending on perceived availability in the marketplace. List pricing would be impossible to set without collusion by the dozens of dealers who operate in this niche marketplace. This is obviously bad for consumers and a sure date with the Feds for those involved, due to the price-fixing implications.

So, what can an IT buyer use as a price marker? The best alternative would be the manufacturer’s list price. Unfortunately, this can also be cloudy in cases where the manufacturer has discontinued a product and no longer offers the product and/or pricing. In most cases, we can help the buyer find the last published list price though. Discounts typically range between 30-80% off of list depending on the product and its availability.

Education Discounts:

Vibrant definitely supports education and does its best to discount pricing for universities (and in particular for students that need a system to learn on), but we don’t have an across-the-board education discount. We offer very competitive prices for all of our clients, and if we’re only making 3% on a sale already, it is very difficult to discount that further below our cost. We just do our best on a case by case basis.

Volume Discounts:

This can get interesting. In the majority of cases we can offer a volume discount if more than a couple of items are to be procured. In some cases, though, more product can mean we actually have to charge more. I realize that this seems counter-intuitive, but let me explain…

Let’s say for example that five products had been quoted at a set price, $1000 each. Then, the client comes back with a surprise. They’ve decided to purchase five units for each of their 10 branch locations. But let’s say that we only have 10 of the item in stock and we know that our cost to acquire 40 more on the wholesale market is now $1500 each due to upward price pressures. Since we don’t manufacture the product, unfortunately, we can’t just make more of it. As you can see, this is a difficult situation because the client is surely hoping for a volume discount and we will have to increase our price just to break even. We’ll offer to supply our stock at the discounted price and then offer the additional available items at our cost to help our client, but it’s never a fun scenario.

Nonetheless, if you’re working with us, you’ll find we’ll always do what we can to discount to meet your expectations. We want to work with our clients for the long run and we’ll do the best we can. Don’t hesitate to ask us to beat a price or consider a discount where appropriate.

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.

Axis Global Logistics 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.

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Q: Hi Chris. Could you briefly introduce us to Axis?

Chris Kosvic: Thank you for this opportunity, Corey. Axis is a freight forwarder that can pick up from and deliver to anywhere in the world in adherence to our clients’ specific time frame, no matter how tight. We are unique in that we’re physically staffed 24/7/365 to follow our clients’ shipments through the night and to respond to emergencies without fail. Adcom offers complete turnkey logistics solutions – shipping, packaging, crating, warehousing, fulfillment, cargo insurance as well as web-based booking, tracking and reporting.

Q: When shipping delicate, high-end IT hardware, what precautions are taken by freight forwarders?

Chris Kosvic: Freight forwarders are different from the standard, more familiar shipping companies because we treat each shipment as its own individual project. Your freight is not forced into mammoth systems where creativity and care are difficult to provide. From arranging packaging to providing advice on safe shipment practices, forwarders like Adcom excel at customizing our services to fit the needs of high-end IT shippers.

Q: What is the best advice you can give to shipping departments in regards to preparing IT equipment for transport?

Chris Kosvic: A couple of things come to mind. The first is to always consider an “exclusive use” vehicle, where your shipment is the only freight on the truck. In shipping jargon, this is known as a “hotshot” and is the safest, most effective method of transporting high-end equipment. If your budget does not allow for a hotshot, make absolutely sure your goods are professionally packaged and crated.

While we at Adcom Worldwide do our best to pamper your shipments, the transportation environment can be one of controlled chaos – one with forklifts whirring, trucks unloading and drivers hurrying. Things can happen, and until someone invents those Star Trek transponders that zap your goods from one place to another, they always will. Thoughtful planning will always mitigate (and hopefully) eliminate any damage your shipment could otherwise incur.

Q: When handling overseas freight, what extra precautions might be considered?

Chris Kosvic: The most important component of shipping internationally is to ensure that your documentation is meticulously completed. Make sure your packing list is precise and includes the specific country of origin for each product. This, along with accurately labeling the individual items within your shipment, will dramatically decrease the likelihood of your freight getting hung up in customs.

Another issue that has reared its head in recent years is the heat treatment and fumigation of your wood packaging. Stringent rules have been put in place to prevent the spread of pests that lurk within boxes, pallets, crates, etc. If you ship internationally, import or export, it is critical that you utilize heat-treated materials; otherwise, your shipments will be delayed so the packaging can be fumigated. If you’re interested in learning more about this program, visit: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/wpm/.

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Thanks to Axis Global Logistics for taking time to answer our questions and for their ongoing service. Vibrant recommends Axis as a freight forwarder for any high-end IT Hardware freight shipments as they offer a great blend of competitive pricing and secure regional, national and international shipping options.

Chris Kosvic can be contacted directly by email or by phone at 952-884-0070.

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.

You might wonder why I would doubt HP Technology Forum 2006…
The main issue here is that the conference is organized by HP themselves. As Rita Workman said in a 2005 Computerworld article regarding HP World: “It was basically geared to the users — not controlled by the vendor.” I hope that HP takes those words to heart and keeps the presentations and format user-focused.

Due to various obligations, I will not be able to attend next week’s hoopla, but I will be closely monitoring the response. If I hear good things, we will likely exhibit next year and introduce our used HP Integrity and HP Proliant servers and upgrades to the HP Technology Forum attendees.

Blogging HP Technology Forum 2006
Encompass, currently the largest HP-UX and HP Enterprise Hardware User Group, will cover events and sessions at HPTF on their blog from Houston all week. If you can’t make it in person, get a taste of the HP server conference at:
http://main.blogs.encompassus.org/.

“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).

Step 1: Reseat and Reboot (80% sucess rate!)
Open up your server (power off), re-seat the memory, drives, CPUs and any other potentially loose components. Reboot. At this point, it’s likely that you’re back in business. Honestly, this solves at least 80% of the calls that we get when the system won’t boot right out of the box. We test everything before we ship, so loose components, due to vibration from transport, are usually the culprit.

Just last week we shipped a used Sun server to Florida via freight carrier and I received this call. I asked the client to reseat the memory and it worked like a charm. We pack everything with extreme care, but you can’t avoid the vibration of the big rigs that haul our servers across the nation.

Step 2: Collect Information (need input)
Get ready to write down as many details as you can. You don’t want to ask the client twice; she needs to install this server by 2PM, Eastern Time. Its’ likely the client will give you the relevant error issues, but here are some helpful details to gather:

• Error Log: Can the client get past boot to the point where they can print off or email an error log? This is gold for a qualified technician as troubleshooting material.
• Display option: Is there any display at all? If so, is the client using a graphics card and monitor or the serial port and a terminal? Some older servers also require a keyboard and mouse to be connected, so you might want to ask if they’re using these, too.
• Sequences: Are there any flash sequences or irregular patterns showing on the keyboard LED or on the server’s start button?
• Lights: This is obvious, but green is good and red or orange is usually bad.
• Additions: Anything recently added to the server before it failed?

Step 3a: Call an Engineer or tech support (smart move)
These guys are good. They’ll be happy you gathered some info ahead of time, too. Even if you did spell it “scuzzy” instead of SCSI.

Step 3b: Go for it! (good luck sucka)
If this were a Choose Your Own Adventure book, your most likely outcome would be an unfortunate encounter with either a rogue asteroid or a mutant tiger. Here are three real dangers to be wary of:

• Static: Static electricity can zap your components, so please use an anti-static wrist strap and do your best to find a static-free workplace. Stay off of carpeting!
• Electrocution: Servers use electricity. Please unplug it before you do anything.
• Your Brute Strength: If a case isn’t opening, you probably missed a screw.

Okay, so if you have absolutely no other option, and this isn’t for a client, read on…

Step 4: Internet (lol)
Remember all of that information you collected in step 2? It’s time to put those clues to use. Even real techs use transactive memory systems such as online forums, to ask about and find information and fixes on system errors.

These forums are usually searchable on Google, so I would start there. Include the model type and error that you’re seeing. Search for something like “keyboard flashes on HP Proliant DL380 error,” if that’s the type of information you’ve gathered. Just remember that you’re in the realm of the internet and the Two-Striped Telamonia, so take any advice with a grain of salt.

added: If you can get past boot and view the firmware and BIOS, look online to make sure that you have all of the latest versions and updates.

Any other tips out there from real techies or savvy sales people?

Disclaimer: I take no liability for any further damage to a server, voided warranties or personal injury which you may incur due to self-troubleshooting. (I warned you about that mutant tiger.)

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?