Expert Insight Published in German Industry Press

Techbuyer Germany Sales’ Manager Chris Sweetsir recently gave an “expert insight” interview to German industry magazine colo.community. It has some great information in it, which we have translated for English speaking readers.

Colo.community: Why are you a strong advocate of refurbishment?

Refurbished equipment is by far and away the best solution in many data centre environments because equipment is often changed out more quickly than it is worn out. Systems are constantly updated and modified to cope with new forms of technology, but the components that are no longer useful in one data centre can and should be used elsewhere. Like for like, refurb performs just as well as new, which is why we offer a three-year warranty as standard at Techbuyer. It also represents a good environmental choice because of the carbon cost of manufacture and the materials the parts contain.

Colo.community: What do we need to know about Techbuyer?

Techbuyer buys, refurbishes and sells servers, storage and networking from its offices in the UK, US and Germany. The aim is to deliver on solutions that suit any organisation with any compute need and any budget. We can provide the latest technology from the big brands like HP, Dell, Intel, IBM and Cisco as well as older generations and third party solutions, and company stocks everything from a memory stick to a fully-configured server.  

The company has been around since 2005 and has built up from just two people to an operation that stocks over 225,000 parts and ships to public and private sector organisations in more than 80 countries worldwide.  

Colo.community: Why does the insufficient use of compute have a greater effect on efficiency than PUE?

If you run a server at 10-20% of its utilisation, you are wasting energy on significantly reduced compute power. This is the relationship the industry should be focusing on because data centres exist to store and manage data, whereas PUE is a measurement of how much energy is wasted by the mechanics not being efficiently cooled. The 3 year EU Commission-funded EURECA project studied 350 public data centres across Europe. It demonstrated that whilst increasing PUE results in linear growth in energy consumption, server utilisation leads to exponential growth. Project lead Rabih Bashroush summed it up in the following way during an interview with Computer Weekly in the UK:

“If you operate a data centre with a server utilisation of 10% and you increase your utilisation to 20% or 30%, you can achieve savings that you will never achieve alone by just addressing the infrastructure, which cost you much more to address anyway,”

Colo.community: What’s your answer to the worry about using “second hand” equipment?

All our equipment is subject to a 25 point testing process for performance and physical quality, which generates performance data for each server. We offer a three year warranty as standard, which is comparable to the manufacturer warranty on new equipment. We also offer installation and maintenance contracts to give customers peace of mind over the course of the product’s lifetime. Everything is professionally packaged in custom designed materials and delivered the same day if that is what the customer requires. Lastly, all relevant components are data wiped using military standard wipe patterns to ensure they are clean of data. In short, we deliver the same quality of performance guarantee and service provision that manufacturers do on new, just with second hand equipment.

Colo.community: How is the refurbishment market in Germany developing compared to other countries?

The German market has been a bit more hesitant in terms of refurbished hardware compared to the UK market. While refurbished hardware was already accepted in the UK and USA, the German market was still fairly conservative. Our current progress with Techbuyer Germany and our other locations show that refurbished equipment is becoming an increasingly important part in the German market and it is no longer just a niche market. We are moving away from just selling refurbished equipment for spare parts to fully configured data centres. Refurbishment and sustainability are definitely on the rise in Germany.

Colo.community: What do you look for when buying hardware?

We want to be able to reuse/ resell as much equipment as possible.  The main thing we look for is the level of demand in the used market.  Equipment being ’old’ doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t have resale value!  

Colo.community: What does a data centre manager need to look for when selling is their equipment for refurbishment?

Look for a reputable operator that guarantees secure data wiping with certification on request. You should also look at quality standards associated with the company such as ISO 9001. You should also check the company’s credentials for ethically recycling anything they are unable to refurbish. Check around for the best price available for the make and model you have to sell. Lastly, look for financial stability of the company that you are using. This ensures that you will be paid promptly and properly. 

Colo.community: Techbuyer wipes up to 10,000 drives a month. What software do you use and what makes this software stand out?  

Techbuyer operates a complete HDD data sanitation service using world-leading security software from White Canyon and Blancco. Our data erasure software is fully compliant with requirements set by government agencies, legal authorities and independent testing laboratories across the world. This includes certification from the NIAP’s (National Information Assurance Partnership) EAL 4+ Standard, the most comprehensive certification currently available and Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), also known as the German Information Security Agency (GISA). The method fulfils the stringent security requirements of the BSI guidelines for classified documents and has been audited by the TÜV Süd.

Colo.community: What can customers expect from your configure to order service?

The configure to order service works as a custom system design that is put together according to customer requirement before delivery. In some cases, the configuration details will be requested by the customer as part of the sales process. In others, our sales staff will request details such as the environment the equipment is going into, what kind of workload the server is hosting, storage and working memory requirements. Our specialist IT department then suggests a configuration that meets these demands and builds this in-house.

Colo.community: What savings can a data centre manager expect from you? What’s your most sold hardware?

The potential savings that can be achieved by using refurbished hardware start at roughly 30% for a server up to 80% for the component parts. The examples below shows a Dell CTO Server and HBA components from a known brand.  Our most popular products include HBAs, memory and HDDs. Often our customers will use third party products when buying a refurbished server.

Bulk buy of 27 branded HBAs [fibre channel adapters]

Spent £6,000

Would have spent £32,000 on new

SAVED over 81%

CPUs going into the previous generation of servers (G9).

Spent £330 on each

Would have spent £1,000 on each new

SAVED 67%

Server chassis on Dell R720. These were new but an older generation. They would not be available now and the equivalent in new generations would retail at £15,000- £18,000 each.

Spent £7,722

Would have spent £12,000

SAVED over 35%

Question twelve: What should readers do next to check where the use of refurbished would make sense in their data centre?

Refurb works just as well as new. The trick is to assess what your organisation actually needs and then check this against the specifications of each piece of equipment. In some cases, you will actually get more performance out of refurbished equipment because the difference in price means you can afford to buy more components and maximise performance. As an example, you can add more memory to the system and get better use of your CPU. It is also worth remembering that certain components, for example, HBAs fit in any server. If you need to bulk order on these for spares or upgrades, you can save a significant amount with the refurbished option.

To read this article in German, go to https://colo.community/wiederaufbereitung-wachsender-trend-im-rechenzentrum/