How to Deal with Network Equipment Shortages

Equipment shortages have broken the record across all network categories and device types. It has affected a wide range of equipment customers, including enterprises that are:

• Building new network sites
• Opting for equipment maintenance and refreshes
• Adopted a just-in-time delivery model
• Looking to transition to a cloud-native model

One of the significant causes of equipment shortage is the high demand for chips that are used virtually in all types of network gear. The shortfall of these critical components skyrocketed during the pandemic. Larger and more complex devices in a data center, such as distribution switches, large WAN edge devices, routers, and SD-WAN equipment, experience longer lead times. Most enterprises face difficulties in scaling back their network upgrade and expansion plans. According to the Gartner report, the chip shortage is expected to ease during the second half of 2022. On the other hand, global semiconductor revenue will grow approximately 9.4% in 2022 to $638.6 billion.

Let’s look at some ways to deal with equipment shortages.

How to deal with a shortage of network equipment?

Lead times are growing, and enterprises are losing their patience. They need to fulfill the requirements and shortage of IT hardware equipment.

But how?

Here are a few ways in which organizations can overcome the equipment shortage.

1. Optimize existing assets

One of the best ways to overcome the network equipment shortage is to optimize the existing assets. Most enterprise network devices operate at below 75% of their port capacity. If organizations reduce excess capacity by consolidating connectivity, they can free up anywhere from 10% to 15% of switches for higher utilization of existing resources. However, this process requires re-cabling, operational labor, and more to free up switching capacity.

2. Move to the cloud

Organizations can overcome the equipment shortage by moving their workloads to the cloud. This way, they can eliminate the need to buy switches and other network hardware. Besides moving to host providers or public cloud providers, another way is to use network appliances that have low interface count, such as routers, firewalls, load balancers, and more can be used to minimize the impact. Moving to the cloud does not involve any additional infrastructure investments. However, service providers may offer prohibitively expensive pricing models.

3. Use strategic procurement

Vendors prioritize customers who offer larger revenue opportunities in the current market scenario. Organizations willing to gain services urgently and seamlessly show vendors how much their business can contribute to the vendor’s revenue stream. This requires no or minimal changes to the existing operational models.

4. Explore certified refurbished equipment

Most vendors offer official refurbished equipment programs in line with the circular economy and sustainability. This can reduce lead times down to days or weeks. You can find some highly experienced and reliable refurbishing vendors who can fully refurbish, recertify, and support the hardware. They offer solutions and services that can also extend the life of your IT hardware. This entire process is not only cost-effective but also environmentally friendly.

5. Adopt sustainable hardware refresh strategies

Hardware refresh is one of the most reliable ways to deal with network equipment shortages. Most organizations refresh their IT hardware months before the equipment reaches its end of useful life. Hardware refresh refers to replacing the existing or outdated hardware with the newest or latest version of the equipment to combat performance and capacity issues.

How can CXtec help counter the equipment shortage?

Equipment shortages are one of the major concerns of organizations today. CXtec, with over 40+ years of experience in the refurbishing industry, offers an ideal solution to transform your business. CXtec equal2new® helps you adopt sustainable practices and combat the equipment shortage. equal2new offers high-quality pre-owned equipment for companies of all types and sizes. It provides reliable, stable, refurbished IT equipment. Moreover, it gives businesses the advantage of:

• Massive cost savings
• Minimal carbon footprint
• A simplified buying process

CXtec helps maintain the current technology infrastructure by utilizing hardware that manufacturers no longer support. It not only reduces the lead times but also helps unlock the true potential of the equipment at every stage of your technology investment. Before sending the final equipment for your business, we follow test and trial methods and steps, including testing, quality control, and more.

Why choose equal2new?

• Huge inventory of top brands, including Dell, EMC, Cisco, and more.
• Each unit undergoes stringent industry-leading testing and ISO-certified quality checks.
• Impressive lifetime warranty with advance replacement
• Get the technology you need under budget with massive cost savings.

To learn more about equal2new, visit https://www.cxtec.com/hardware/equal2new/used-network-equipment/