Server lifecycles present a very economical opportunity for shrewd buyers

As large organizations increase their use of server virtualization and deploy the latest servers with an ever growing number of CPU cores, their retired and off-lease server inventory presents an amazing source of cost effective hardware for many organizations. Common lease terms today mean that as of this writing there is a large stream of Dell, HP and IBM 2 and 4 CPU servers available and savvy buyers are finding these very capable machines at a fraction of their original cost. Looking back 3 years, typical dual Intel quad core CPU servers sold originally for $6,000 – $12,000 depending upon their configuration. Those same machines today are selling in the secondary market for $750 – $2000 with many models and configurations available at or below $1000. These servers usually offer 2 or more quad-core CPUs and are highly configurable in terms of disk storage and RAM. Most utilize Intel 55xx and 56xx series CPUs which means compatibility with nearly any Microsoft Server OS, Microsoft database or anything from vmware. DDR3 RAM is usually found in these same machines and the sharp decline in memory prices means higher amounts of RAM (72GB or more) can be achieved very cost effectively. Most of the current off-lease models were built with 6-12 SAS/SATA disk drive bays which give the next user a lot of storage flexibility. The same availability of these servers presents a reliable and widely available supply of inexpensive service parts which means low out-of-warranty support costs.
We have a number of data center buyers that have been early adopters of this secondary market strategy. So for those that are paying attention and are willing to look at alternative sources, big savings can be had without a lot of effort.