If you are setting up a network operations centre, particularly in today's economy, one of the biggest concerns is putting together an adequate facility on an utterly inadequate budget. Whilst the good news is that your business is growing in an otherwise down economy, the bad news is that if your networking infrastructure can't keep up, that growth won't continue. Fortunately, there are alternatives, most notably buying refurbished network hardware.

Networking gear retains its value much longer than most other computer components; only monitors tend to stick around for longer in a business context. The principle reasons for this are that other than the bandwidth limits, most networking protocols for the last fifteen years have been backwards compatible; the primary exception is wireless, and while the entire wireless networking equipment will handshake with older ones, not all wireless security protocols will do so, and your network will be hampered by the speed of your router.

What this means for you and your Company is that there's a ready market in secondary and tertiary networking equipment. What we are going to do is cover the ins and outs; this won't cover specific manufacturers and hardware types; it will cover the core concepts and lay to rest some misperceptions about the secondary networking equipment market.

The first misperception is on the quality (and in some cases, provenance) of the goods. There are countless rumours that the secondary market is the "gray" market - or even the black market, with lots of networking equipment having Trojans or backdoors built into it. While this makes for an excellent introduction to a spy thriller, in reality it's far less dramatic. Reliable second and third tier resale agents do extensive tests and certifications; they know what they are up against in the market. It doesn't matter how good the price is; one customer with a bad experience can ruin their business.

Similarly, when checking for compromised equipment, most will flat out reject any networking equipment that has been abused. They don't sell "as is", they run full diagnostics, and most often, reject equipment before it even goes to the shelf. They are also working hard to rule out "counterfeit" networking equipment, cooperating with manufacturers, trade associations and law enforcement personnel. While this equipment is being driven rapidly towards commodity pricing, the latest and best are sometimes the targets of forgery artists.

Most reliable networking equipment resellers can document what procedures they have tested the equipment through, from powering on to checking the network protocol stacks that a run through. Combine this with the retained value and you can find several bargains.

While you are unlikely to get complete cutting edge, most organisations don't need it. Indeed, if your shop has standardised on a particular vendor and model number, and that model is more than three years old, you are likelier to find it in a re-seller specialising in the refurbishment market. There is an extensive secondary market in this equipment - and quite a bit of it is fairly modern; they are bought from business liquidations, store liquidations, or OEM (original equipment manufacturer) merchant sites.

Finally, most reliable merchants provide a warranty and extensive technical support. In a number of cases, the warranties and support exceed what OEM providers and system integrators give. When it comes to technical support, a secondary merchant is likelier to have hands on support with the piece of equipment involved than a typical shop minder selling sealed products. (Anyone who's ever had technical support at the local "big box" retailer knows exactly what we are speaking of.)