During the dot.com bust, a huge amount of used IT equipment entered the market and, while it does not appear that we will see the same volume of equipment during the current financial climate, it is clear that some businesses are failing, especially smaller ones. So, we can expect an increased supply of used equipment. Moreover, the vendors are going to be very hungry over the next few quarters, and they will be forced to bid used hardware to users who cannot afford new. Users should in fact be pressing their vendors to propose creative alternatives using used/refurbished hardware. The leasing companies will love it.
What’s more, by employing storage virtualization, users do not have to scale back their performance and availability requirements. In-band caching virtualization appliances and uber-boxes can meet or exceed service level requirements including performance and availability using non-tier-1 storage hardware. Server- and network-based storage virtualization will not improve storage response times but will bring the benefits of pooling all your storage – both new and used. Both also offer high availability features, but one must carefully navigate interoperability matrices
On the down side, many newly budget-constrained users will look to extend leases on existing hardware and/or turn purchased assets into cash with sale and leaseback arrangementsm thus reducing the volume of hardware that would have normally entered the used market. Also, storage hardware vendors have vigorously tried to control the used market with non-transferable software/micro code licenses – a tactic whose use is inversely proportional to their hunger.
Action Item: Users should explore the used IT equipment market; have an aggressive conversation with incumbent vendors about supplying used equipment as well as more flexibility in transferring software licenses; and investigate how storage virtualization could stitch together a vast array of heterogeneous storage.
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