Where to Sell Used Servers

So you have finally made the hard decision to say goodbye to your old server. It’s probably been collecting dust in some supply closet for a few months, and you just can’t seem to find a use for it. Your new server is working just fine, and you’ve already transferred all the data you need and wiped the drives on the old server. So what do you do with that outdated piece of technology? If you’re considering just taking it into the recycler…stop! That old server still has value, and while you may deem it without value, there is plenty of money tied up the system. Getting your money’s worth out of that old server is one of the best ways to get a return on your initial investment. Selling a used server is a great way to recoup some of that cost. But is there even a market for used servers? How would one go about selling his or her server? The short answer is yes, and there are two ways to go about selling your server: person to person and direct sale.

Person to Person

As this method suggests, person to person sales are carried out among individuals across a variety of mediums. The most common solution for person to person sales necessitates some sort of third party facilitation. The third party might be a newspaper providing you space for a classified ad, or it might be an ecommerce site allowing you to post. Ecommerce is a viable option for selling your used server, but beware: as you enter the ecommerce arena, you will be competing for a low price against others in much the same situation as you. If you have the lowest price on a site like Amazon or Ebay, chances are you will be able to sell your server. However, if you’re holding out for the right price you may be waiting for a while.

Direct Sale

A direct sale involves approaching a used hardware or computer business and negotiating a flat price for the exchange of the server. There is no “bidding” in the sense of ecommerce auction style purchasing, but you may be able to negotiate a higher price, depending on the quality of your server. When selling your server directly, it is important to get a quote and verify it at another buyer. Whereas you were competing for the lowest price online, you will now have a little bit of leverage as potential buyers quote up against one another. Even if your server has no value, many computer businesses will be able to provide you with a scrap value for the server. With the precious metals contained within the server, you will still be able to garner some small return from the server.

Bottom Line

Direct sale is preferable to person-to-person sale, and often provides you a more realistic return on your server. The ability to request a quote and verify a quote before you sell used servers greatly increases your chances of getting the best price, whereas online selling will cut your margin of return further down.

Expanding Server Potential

All too often, technology is quickly outpaced by the some “newer, better, faster” replacement which is, in reality, only marginally improved over the previous model. It happens all the time with smart phones, as an example, but who really needs two cameras on a phone or a female HAL artificial intelligence? Over time, however, these small improvements add up to the point where one model is truly outpaced by a newer model. But with major investments, one can hardly afford to get the newest and fastest model every time a substantial improvement is made. When it comes to servers, the best way to plan for future needs while maximizing on the use of an older server is by planning for scalability.

Individual Scalability

The first aspect of scalability is that which applies to individual servers. When choosing a server for your business, you should always plan for future upgrades. Scalability comes in as we consider the question To what degree is this server scalable? If the server has two gigabytes of installed RAM but only allows for a total of four gigabytes, that server may not be the best investment. If a server allows for up to sixteen gigabytes of expanded memory, that is the much better choice. Individual servers with greater degrees of scalability will allow for the easy installation and removal of processors, memory, and hard drives, depending on your individual needs.

Multiple Scalability

When you are looking at expandability for multiple server configurations, you will want to look at the scalability for multiple units. Tower servers are generally good for small businesses and operations. However, multiple tower servers wouldn’t be optimized for larger businesses. Tower servers are generally standalone units. The best choices for larger-scale deployments are rack servers and blade servers. Rack servers are those which are self-contained units but which are placed in rack mounts. These are the most common choice for scalability; as multiple servers are required, each can be individually scaled, and the entire compliment of servers can be scaled as a whole. Blade servers consist of one large blade chassis which supplies both power and cooling to the individual blades. The “blades” have all the components of the actual server, and are a great choice for scalability as you can engage only a single blade or several depending on your business needs.

Within rack and blade mounting, individual scalability holds true. However, planning for future expansion demands you be mindful of how server deployments will work. Both racks and blade chassis configurations have a limit to the servers they can support. However, expansion options are available. The IBM I-series, for example, allows for expansion drawers for additional scalability. With the addition of a 5796-8203 expansion drawer, the potential of the IBM system is expanded beyond its maximum individual configuration. If you don’t want your server(s) to be passed up and rendered useless, you must plan to upgrade individual servers. Additionally, you must allow for multiple server expansions. Allowing for such growth will ensure your investment yields the greatest benefits.