It does, however, mean they are left with on-premise hardware they are no longer using. In fact, one of the reasons that many businesses are hesitant to move to the cloud is because of the large investment they have already made in their own in-house systems – they find it hard to justify walking away from all that money. Indeed, hardware can be expensive to buy and maintain and this cost shouldn’t go to waste if you decide that switching to a cloud service provider is right for your business.
There is a way to see a return on your investment, and help pay for your migration to the cloud. Two, three and four year old technology can still hold value, and, sold through the right hardware procurement firm, it could be an unrealised cash resource.
Decommissioning onsite hardware
By selling old on-premise hardware when switching to the cloud, you may be able to help your business fund its online data migration.
Here are some things to consider when choosing what to do with your old hardware:
Price
In order to get the best return on your investment, you’ll want to maximise the price you get for your hardware. There are many factors that will influence the price you are able to garner, including the brand, age, model, CPU speed, RAM and size. When asking for a quote, provide as much of the equipment’s configuration detail as possible and include any licences. You should also nominate a collection date, so the procurement firm can then pre-sell your equipment for a better price. Including any supporting equipment such as custom-made rack kits or mounting rails will also help you receive a better price.
Ease
After moving to the cloud, many people do not know what to do with their old hardware. Even before considering the money to be made by selling the hardware, you can hardly just take this kind of thing to the tip when you no longer want it. Whether your business has just a few servers to decommission or a whole data centre, having a procurement firm take care of the removal of the hardware – including the racking hardware, the PDUs, and the servers themselves, can make the whole process a lot simpler, faster and hassle-free.
Data security
Data is often a business’s most valuable asset, and when getting rid of old server equipment, many companies are concerned about the security of their data. Once you’ve migrated all of your data to a new platform, all that information still exists on your infrastructure, and needs to be securely wiped. Touchpoint Technology can eliminate the usable data from the disk so that it cannot be retrieved, using an industry-standard disk wiping solution, which means the disk can safely continue to be used by a new owner. This can either be performed onsite, or the equipment can be collected and securely wiped off-site, with an audit certificate provided.
Moving to the cloud?
If you’re preparing to migrate to the cloud, don’t waste your investment in technology like servers and storage devices. At Touchpoint Technology, we buy all kinds of enterprise hardware, from a whole range of brands, including IBM, Sun, Oracle, HP, Dell, EMC, NetApp, Cisco and Juniper. You can find out more about selling to us here. Or, if you’re ready to sell your old equipment, get in contact with us today for a fast quote.