A Look at reusing old hardware to decrease the burden onthe CapEx without
killing the OpEx…even in Pakistan!
Things aren’t always what they seem to be. Case in point, a pile of junk, isn’t always a pile of junk. And if you’re anything like the many technology enthusiasts who buy hardware directly as opposed to through a proper procurement or purchase department, chances are, you’ve ended up buying a truckload of hardware that you didn’t necessarily need. Instead of throwing it all away, there are things you can do to bring some of the hardware back in use. And before you stand up in protest of the fact that this will only add to the refurbished hardware market, we asked people to tell us ways that our companies could save on cost because they already had hardware lying around on their premises.

If you think back, at some point in time in the past, you may have come across a hardware vendor who would have tried to convince you to buy a PC because its hardware components will be more ‘compatible’ with change.

Most of us would have probably just given him credit for trying to be creative in his selling approach, and walked out with the CPU that looked good. He was probably trying to save you something for the rainy day.

Whether or not you have a formalized finance department, you will want to cut back on as much of the cost burden as possible. Can an old computer serve as an attendance log or be used as part of a batch rendering process which your graphics or multimedia department may need? Can you clean up older components so they work as storage devices or servers to help you function more efficiently?

With technology solutions that sit in the Cloud, there is only a minimal, physical installation you need to do on your machine. The only real upgrade requirement which you may need is that of an Operating System and bump up some of the security vulnerabilities in the older machines, and you could be good to go.

Grant Laing at Blended IT Solutions says, “There is product from IGEL, that we use here to recycle old computers into thin clients. It is affordable and extends the life of the computer. You could also use the more powerful PCs as standby servers and such, as for networking gear. As for the stuff we cannot put to use but is still okay, we simply give away to nonprofits groups.” Grant also points out that there are used Comms groups online which you can also take advantage of. Of course, not everything in IT has to be shiny and new! “There are plenty of Open Source projects that don’t have very high demands on hardware.” So reusing some of the junk you may have in-house and migrating to Ubuntu or an Open Source Operating System, might be the way to go.

Doreen Skonier, an Information Systems Technician, explains that there are places where you can donate computer hardware and monitors. “In the US at least, you can also get a tax writeoff for the amount you donate. Most Computer Refurbishing places take them.”

Since Doreen volunteers at one of these refurbishing places in the US, she says, “We refurbish them and set them up to be sent out to the consumers who learn how to use these PC systems. They just contribute 5 dollars for the Microsoft License and use them throughout the facility where these individuals come in to take a class to develop skills.”

Kevin Elwell, a Technology Analyst offers a more development approach, “My suggestion would be to take the older hardware and create a test or development environment if you do not currently have one in place. Donating the equipment to a nonprofit or other worthy cause is always a wonderful option as well.” But like Grant, Kevin also agrees that if you don’t know how to set one up or will never get around to it, you might as well donate the equipment to a place that will put it to use. “Something else you can do is to simply offer them to your employees. We get asked all the time from employees if they have an option to purchase the older equipment. You could create a marquee to communicate things to your employees, lunch room/cafeteria intranet portals, there are so many things you could do with the older equipment. Just get creative! A lot of college students are looking for inexpensive computers. You have many options, but please make sure that if you do recycle your computers and servers to either remove the hard drives and destroy them or use ‘data destroying software’ to scrub the hard drives. You would not want any of your company’s data to be freely available after you recycle the computers.”

What to Move Where?
Converting your hardware into something more than what it was originally meant for always has its risks. To do anything, you need to be able to assess the topographical layout of your own network and identify the critical areas. There are some departments that don’t need a lot of processing power and simply need a client to connect to data already residing in the Cloud. Speed and processing power to such departments, is irrelevant. Geoff Feldman, a ‘Hands-on’ Software Architect and Senior Developer explains, “I would move older hardware to functions in the company that don’t require as much performance.”

Rizwan Ahmed Khan, Business Development Manager at Octara, agrees. “I think that old PCs can simply also be moved to functions in the company that don’t require high configuration PCs. To sell these PCs with most discounted price to employees is an option also. But when it comes to donating or safe disbursement of used hardware, there should be a centralized body that can collect these machines from your premises, format the data, repair and bring them back to the company.”

And while there are smaller vendors or support companies that offer such services, it doesn’t always work.

Matthew Leeds, VP Operations at Gracenote says, “First, part of the CapEx budget should always be dedicated to technology refresh. Old hardware is a drain on the OpEx budget. Generally it underperforms, uses too much electricity, needs more maintenance, and takes too much space. You should perform ROI analysis on hardware replacement projects.”

Matthew illustrates with the example where he has just started on a project to replace 50 older servers with 20 brand new servers. “They do the same or more work, require far less power and rack space, and have lower annual support cost. The ROI on the project is roughly 18 months.”

He advises that you should talk to your hardware supplier about trade-in value. Pakistan has a lot of computer vendors who will probably relieve you off your old technology. “As part of the above project, I was able to reduce the CapEx required via a one-for-one trade in of the older servers which cut the cost of the newer servers by at least 10%!”

But even with a save with the kind that Matthew has had, he is careful to say that, “A hard look at the OpEx for older hardware is always required. We all have a natural reluctance to get rid of things, but the increased productivity from new hardware, the lower cost of operation, the decreased maintenance cost, all these bring value to the organization. Test labs, donations, employee giveaways, all these are great ideas. Examine them carefully; is a test lab that does not mirror your production environment a proper test environment? Is giving employees older hardware really a benefit? Can the organization you’re donating to support and maintain older hardware? It’s important to carefully consider and analyze the motivation and actual results for any of these actions.”

And that’s been the dilemma of used or refurbished computers flooding the local market. With so many local brands already out of business, the injection of used machinery back into the system is not really a sustainable option for the few that are still surviving.

According to Khushnood Aftab, CEO of Viper Technologies, a Pakistani PC brand, refurbished PCs across Pakistan already make up about 50% (or 500,000) of the market. And of the approximate 1 million machines sold, approximately 80% is comprised of local brands and 75,000 units sold of those sold, were new PCs.”

Al Macintyre is a Computer Professional in IBM Midrange who says that they have a few people in-house who can repair some of this stuff. “The older hardware is used as spare parts when fixing the newer machines. Anytime a computer hard drive or other equipment, is to leave our office premises, it must get destroyed any and all data, unless the place it is going to, has some contractual situation where they are simply not allowed to access the old operating system that was licensed to our company period.”

A good piece of advice Al shares is that you should be sure and keep the paperwork proving what you bought as opposed to what you leased. “We ran into some trouble when new personnel simple assumed that old equipment we were no longer using, was owned by the company and legitimate to sell at an auction. We realized later that it was leased, and should have been returned to the real owners, so as to reduce the fees we were paying for the leasing.”

And then a few more housekeeping advice follows in the form of stick labels on the equipment so it can be identified whether it is owned or leased, who the leasing company is, who to call if repairs are needed, when the software licenses expire, serial # or bar code. All of these will help you to document the existence and life of your hardware. You can send an inventory person through the facility and simply scan the bar code of what’s where and maintain a report to compare with at a later time to assess whether anything has been changed or missing, what you are no longer using and what its legality status is.”Fahad Khan, trainer and strategist at Lakson Business Solutions, offers, “I think donation is the best way to recycle the hardware without wasting it. There are many philanthropic organizations, NGOs or foundations that are willing to help you in proper utilization of used hardware from your workplace. For IT firms, even the old PCs are important. IT organizations can always use the equipment fragments for connectivity with other equipment such as hard drives, RAM, monitors, casing or other electrical components. Also, if older PCs are running well with certain applications or server configuration, they can still be used for the same purpose.”

Saif-ur-Rahman Choudhri, CEO, eWorld (Private) Limited explains, “As we right-sized our organization to be aligned to the new market realities, we simply sold our PCs, which will surely be recycled or reused by the ultimate purchaser. Even if you do not find any creative use for the old or idle hardware, just get rid of it as it will probably be made useful by someone else. Meanwhile, you will save space, power and earn some cash.”

Ashar Iqbal, CISSP, DGM, IT Security at KESC Ltd says, “Print servers, file servers, firewalls, all of these can be setup an older machine using Linux. There are quite a few Linux/BSD distributors who are specifically there for these purposes.”

Keeping older hardware that may or may not be operational is great if you have someone in-house who can help you to replace them into something newer. The reusing of old hardware to outlive its originally projected lifespan and do more than it was intended to do perhaps makes more sense for larger organizations where economies of scale come into play, rather than the smaller-sized companies. If you have the cushion in the CapEx to make investments into fresh technology, you should. If the older, remodeled hardware fails to work as efficiently as you need it to, it will be a greater strain on the OpEx of that you were originally trying to save.

There you have it! In every aspect of our professional careers, there is a lot we have which could make the compulsive ‘Technoholic’ gene is all of us, work in overdrive while searching for creative solutions to be more responsible and efficient.

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