Featured Story: The Secondary Market: Your Primary Source for Networking Equipment

Sunday, 10 June 2007 18:00

The Secondary Market: Your Primary Source for Networking Equipment

Omar Beyhum

• Secondary market offers substantial savings over manufacturer-direct purchases
• New and refurbished equipment available

Today’s IT departments and communications providers have myriad options for sourcing network hardware including routers, switches, modules, IP phones, and components to upgrade these products.  While some organizations rely on manufacturer support to select and maintain their network hardware, other organizations purchase, install, upgrade, and maintain this costly infrastructure independently, and can do so at a great savings through secondary channels.

The use of network equipment has grown considerably in recent years – not just from use by businesses for their computer networks, but through the proliferation of Internet, telecom, IP and cellular telephone use, and growing demand for IPTV set top boxes.  As a result, the secondary market in new and refurbished network equipment is thriving.  According to a recent report by Enterprise Networks & Servers (www.enterprisenetworksandservers.com), “…growing numbers of global 1000 organizations and many of the most well-known brands around the world purchase pre-owned equipment for network fulfillment, disaster recovery, testing and sparing strategies.”  Businesses are finding that they can offset the substantial cost of new network equipment and upgrades by reselling replaced equipment and purchasing new and refurbished equipment on the secondary market.  For current and end-of-life products, refurbished units are often available at discounts of up to 80% from dealers’ list prices. 

There are some ideal uses for refurbished equipment, including spare components.  Spares are a necessity for any organization, for backup use in the event of failure, as well as for disaster recovery/business continuity strategies.  The lower cost and decreased depreciation of refurbished networking equipment makes it an ideal fit for this purpose. Holding refurbished spares as backups in case of equipment failure can be considerably cheaper than holding a maintenance contract.  Another place where refurbished equipment is ideal is for labs or testing environments, where costly new equipment is unnecessary. 

Advances in enterprise network equipment have become increasingly frequent.  Just last week, Linksys rolled out two new high-speed switches suitable for small businesses.  For some small businesses, however, keeping up with change can be cost prohibitive.  Having the option of purchasing new or refurbished equipment on the secondary market allows these businesses to keep their technology up-to-date.

In addition, buyers are not obligated to buy costly manufacturer support and maintenance contracts for network hardware purchased on the secondary market.  Secondary resellers like Smith Networking often have access to new equipment as well, through direct and secondary distributors.

Another secondary market advantage lies in legacy (EOL) components for use in upgrades and repairs.  Legacy components are still available on the secondary market even when they are no longer available from the manufacturer.  There are numerous manufacturers of memory, modules, and cables that are compatible with a variety of networking equipment – and these accessories are available on the secondary market at a fraction of the network equipment manufacturers’ cost.

Smith Networking offers competitive pricing and rapid delivery on new and refurbished networking equipment and modules. As a part of Smith & Associates, a leading electronics distributor, Smith Networking has extensive experience in the electronics distribution market, as well as the resources and supplier base to achieve substantial cost savings on networking equipment.  Quality is a cornerstone of Smith Networking's business.  Suppliers are carefully screened and product is thoroughly vetted to ensure compliance and functionality.

Smith Networking also offers flexible inventory liquidation solutions including trade-in/ buy-back, consignment, and lot purchase programs for obsolete networking equipment, used systems, and excess inventory. These programs can be customized to suit each customer’s needs.

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