Bringing IT Hardware Investments Full Circle
The familiar environmental edict to “reduce, reuse, recycle” has reached enterprise organizations and network operators. Companies have recognized that efforts to drive efficiencies and cost-savings overlap well with ecological initiatives intended to cut down on waste and overall environmental footprint.
Today, IT managers are talking “refurbish, redeploy, resell.” That’s the green market, a more sustainable and budget-friendly alternative to constantly scrapping hardware every time a refresh is done in the network that causes hardware to get displaced.
Making the Old New Again
Despite aggressive attempts over the past several years by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to portray the green market as a somehow illicit “gray market”, those claims have lost traction. There is increasing acceptance that previously used products of all types—including technology hardware—can offer great value and help keep materials out of the waste stream.
IT leaders and network operators are also now increasingly aware that code updates are no barrier to using green market equipment. Critical security patches are provided to all owners, whether the hardware is purchased through OEM channels or the green market, so there’s no additional security risk. And product enhancements are clustered in the first two years after initial release, so most green market hardware will never see a new feature set.
Network executives and others across the industry are, therefore, tapping green market partners like Sagent at upgrade time in order to secure:
- Same-as-new products with plenty of performance life left to give
- Significant cost-savings when compared with buying from the OEM
- A longer track record by which to judge a product’s performance and reliability, enabling more informed hardware acquisition decisions
Although not right for every application, green market equipment can fill many needs in the average network or data center. Working with a capable supplier like Sagent can put a wide variety of affordable, green market options at your fingertips
Capturing Value from Decommissioned Assets
At the other end of the spectrum is resale. Too much IT and network equipment today is needlessly sent to the scrapyard, simply because it no longer serves the purpose for which it was originally deployed. When a reclamation facility offers $200,000 for a half-million old cable boxes, for example, many network operators jump at the offer, never knowing the gear might be worth $6 million on the green market.
Managing the resale process, however, can be challenging. Many enterprises accumulate piles of hardware in the warehouse because they don’t have the staff time to spend on decommissioning or the connections and logistics capabilities to direct the assets to an appropriate outlet. With so many other priorities, it can be easier to send it off for recycling, even if that means leaving value on the table.
Sagent’s asset recovery solutions help network executives overcome the barriers to achieve the most profitable resale of surplus network assets. From inventory audits to valuation, logistics, and remarketing services, we offer a turnkey approach to decommissioning and resale. And when assets are truly non-functioning or obsolete, we ensure responsible recycling using only R2 processes.
Beyond the Bottom Line
Buying from and selling into the green market empowers enterprises to achieve significant budget impact at both ends of the equipment lifespan, lowering the price of hardware upgrades and maximizing the financial return on the prior generation of equipment. From an environmental perspective, the green market is also essential in:
Putting perfectly functional network hardware to new use- Lowering the emissions, pollution, and energy investment involved in manufacturing equipment
- Reducing materials inputs, including metals, plastics, polymers, and highly refined glass
- Delaying additions to the e-waste stream, recycling and disposing of components only after they have achieved maximum service life
It’s no wonder the green market has become wildly popular. What might come as a surprise is that it’s about more than buying and selling. In our next installment, we’ll address how green market services help optimize sustainability throughout the product lifecycle and deliver further advantage to enterprise operations.