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Buying New Commercial IT Hardware Isn't Always Worthwhile (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the sometimes-it's-better-and-costs-less-to-stick-with-proven-hardware dept.

Ben Blair is CTO of MarkITx, a company that brokers used commercial IT gear. This gives him an excellent overview of the marketplace -- not just what companies are willing to buy used, but also what they want to sell as they buy new (or newer) equipment. Ben's main talking point in this interview is that hardware has become so commoditized that in a world where most enterprise software can be virtualized to run across multiple servers, it no longer matters if you have the latest hardware technology; that two older servers can often do the job of one new one -- and for less money, too. So, he says, you should make sure you buy new hardware only when necessary, not just because of the "Ooh... shiny!" factor" (Alternate Video Link)

12 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Duh by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Used hardware vendor says rack space is free...run your data center on Pentium 3s. News at 11.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Duh by tsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Electrical energy is also free, apparently.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    2. Re:Duh by FuegoFuerte · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you're saying HP doesn't produce quality gear, you have apparently not used their servers. There's a reason they're one of very few top-tier server vendors, and it's because they do produce some great gear. I came from an all-HP shop, and I'm currently in an all-Dell shop. Both manufacturers have their strengths and weaknesses, but all things considered they're approximately equivalent.

    3. Re:Duh by Penguinisto · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A cheapie SunFire v200/210 will run like a tank, but you'll be crippled by the server's top speed, and they do put out the heat if you push up the load average (and HVAC costs should always be factored in, yo.)

      You'll also need to buy a lot of those pizza boxes to make up for the processing power that you can find in a box half its age, let alone the newer iron.

      Sometimes you have to run the old stuff (I work in an environment where we have testbed boxes, and SunFires are a part of that, along with ancient RS/6000 gear, PA-RISC HPUX gear, etc. I can tell you right now that the old stuff cranks out a lot more heat (and in many cases eats a lot more rackspace) than the equivalent horsepower found in just a handful of new HP DL-360's.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  2. What about power? by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    I can't see the video but in the summary he mentions using two old servers to do the job of one new server. I appreciate the recycling, but it sounds like he is talking processing or I/O equivalence, and usually it is power that is the dominating factor in data center effectiveness. Are two servers really cheaper than one when you factor in electricity, cooling, and rack space?

    --
    "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
    1. Re:What about power? by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For some tasks I can understand recycling. I use older hardware to build routers, anti-spam gateways, VPN appliances and the like. Normally these are fairly low-cycle tasks, at least for smaller offices. But I've learned my lesson about using older hardware in mission critical applications. I've set up custom routers that worked just great, until the motherboards popped a cap, and then they're down, and unless you've got spares sitting around, you're in for some misery.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. My company... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is on an "upgrade" cycle. All equipment with red LEDs needs to be replaced with equipment with blue LEDs, at least on the front face of the equipment.

    The CEO toured the data center recently and wanted to see blue LEDs on everything.

  4. Slashvertisement? by nine-times · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Guy who sells used computer hardware claims that buying new computer hardware is a bad idea, and that you should buy used gear instead. News at 11.

    Not what this guy is saying is wrong, but there are other unaddressed issues. They cover issues like "power savings", but not the much more important issue of buying an unknown piece of hardware from an unknown vendor, without a warranty. Aside from that, sometimes there are issues of physical constraints-- like I have limited space, limited ventilation, and one UPS to supply power. Do I want to buy 5 servers, or one powerful one?

    Also, it's not true that hardware isn't advancing. In the past few years, USB has gotten much faster, virtualization support has improved, drives and drive interface has gotten faster, etc.

    And sometimes, buying "new" is more about getting a known quantity with support, rather than wagering on a crap-shoot.

    1. Re:Slashvertisement? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One new server crammed with RAM, with a support contract, and with readily available power supplies is preferable by FAR to me and my organization versus 6 old units. Especially considering per-processor licensing fees for Windows and VMWare.

    2. Re:Slashvertisement? by afidel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Amen to this, we run ~400 VM's on 14 hosts, using less than 1/3rd the power we did when we ran 160-180 physical boxes and everything is easier to manage, new deployments take minutes instead of weeks. We've saved a few million by not needing to grow our datacenter, probably over a million on Microsoft licensing, and made both my staff and my customers happier. There's no way I'd run things on old physical boxes just to save a few dollars on capital expenses.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  5. Really Slashdot? Really? by Tomsk70 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Next Week; Linux rubbish at server tasks says Microsoft Reseller

  6. Interviewer is extremely ignorant on power by George_Ou · · Score: 3, Informative

    At one point the interviewer asks "how much money you gonna save on electricity for 50 computers, $50/year"? It's clear he's never even attempted to do the math. An extra 100 watts in California is going to cost $314.91 per year at the typical rate (above baseline) of 35.949 cents per year. That's just the savings on one computer system much less 50 computers.