How Does Refurbished Equipment Make Its Way To The IT World

IT industry is flooded with refurbished equipment such as servers and switches, but many people wonder where these pieces of equipment come from. Before you purchase any kind of refurbished equipment, it’s essential to know what the term refurbished equipment means and how it differs from used equipment.

Refurbished vs. Used: What Do They Mean?

If you ever visit IT auction sites, you may see descriptions that list a piece of equipment as refurbished or untested used hardware. The two terms are not synonymous. Refurbished equipment is equipment that’s been previously used, but not every used equipment has been refurbished.

What does it mean when an equipment has been refurbished?

Refurbished means:

• Examined for authenticity
• It’s been cleaned and tested
• Repairs have been made
• It’s restored to “like new” conditions
• It comes with a warranty

It’s not uncommon for honest resellers to place warranties and extended maintenance programs on the refurbished equipment as a show of good faith. Many times, these offers are even better than what the original manufacturer provided.

However, un-refurbished (used) IT equipment usually offers no guarantees and the condition is not clearly known.

How Does Refurbished IT Hardware Become Available To The Market?

A data center may buy or lease a server or enterprise router for two to three years and then sell it. Although IT hardware lasts an average of five years, most companies will act on the schedule a manufacturer recommends and buy updated equipment.

This leasing equipment will accept the older equipment, then sell it to a third-party reseller. If the equipment is an outright purchase, the company may choose to sell it to a third-party reseller themselves.

This third-party reseller will clean the equipment, test it out and restore it to “original factory” settings before selling it to another organization or person for less than what it was first sold for. If refurbished correctly, the equipment’s lifecycle begins anew, and the new owner gets value out of it.

Reusing the equipment means it stays out of the landfill - helping the environment and the entity that purchased it.

Should You Consider Refurbished Equipment?

Whether or not you should consider refurbished equipment is dependent on two things:

• What the application requirements are
• How quickly you must have the hardware

IT hardware and software manufacturers inform consumers of the suggested processing and memory amount to garner the best possible performance. Therefore, if the previous data center had no problem with the server configuration and the refurbishment was correctly done, your company should also have no issues.

Remember, the hardware undergoes stringent testing and may even be upgraded to what your configuration needs are. Refurbished equipment can do the same thing a new piece of equipment can do but for less cost. It is the lower price and similar abilities that make refurbished equipment so advantageous to companies.

Refurbished switches and servers are often in stock and are available for shipping quickly. We have a vast inventory that allows us to fulfill orders quickly and offer server configurations that can ship out in 24 hours.