Disbursing 3000 Gear to the Next Life
July 18, 2012
Some 3000 shops which have made migrations are looking for a new home for older equipment. At the Boyd Coffee Company -- whose motto is "Fuel, not fashion" -- director of IT Lane Rollins has systems which once did good work but might be ready for retirement. Or repurposing.
"I need to get some clutter out of here," he said, "and I'm not sure who is reselling HP 3000 gear these days, or if anyone would be interested in the stuff. We’ve been off of the 3000 for five years now."
His list includes two Series 918s, including a Jamaica storage unit (HASS) and an extra SCSI card. Also on hand at the Coffee Company's shop: DTC controllers, an HP line printer with a LAN card, plus terminals.
If the gear doesn't seem like it could launch a thousand ships, it could well be equipment to keep a 3000 ship afloat. This kind of inventory won't draw much resale value, but some service companies need it for their spare parts depot. There's nothing quite as good as replacing a failed bit of hardware with an identical unit.
Pivital Solutions' Steve Suraci made a point of this kind of resource earlier this year. A manager announced a need for a 3000-model HP router to keep a storage unit linked up to a 3000. A search across the Web -- rather than a text message to their service company -- eventually solved the problem. Suraci said that's not an acceptable service level.
That provider was willing to take this company's money, without even being able to provide reasonable assurance that they had replacement parts in a depot somewhere in the event of failure. There are still reputable support providers out there. Your provider should not be afraid to answer tough questions about their ability to deliver on an SLA.
Other companies with a need for 3000 parts might be found on our sponsor list: Genisys, the MPE Support Group, or The Support Group. Sometimes a migrated manager simply needs a volunteer to accept a 3000 shipment, or perhaps defray the cost of getting the older gear onto a UPS truck -- or even into the back of a pickup, if the support vendor is nearby.
Boyd's is completely migrated, but there's one last piece of 3000 gear that's not going anywhere yet.
"Someday the 979 will go away, but need to keep it for the time being," Rollins said. We'd bet that some historical archiving is at the heart of that hardware's duty. If you're interested in the Boyd's gear, you can contact Rollins via email or at 503.907.2555.