Supply and demand together with current economic conditions are the key elements of the pricing structure in the refurbished industry. Properly refurbished networking equipment obtained from reputable vendor offers all the benefits of new gear, but can cost significantly less than new. This provides savings to end users between 30% and 70% of a comparable new equipment and often with a better warranty than provided for new gear.
One of the biggest challenges that many companies face is managing a large installed base of networking infrastructure with large portion of legacy equipment. Buying refurbished equipment not only provides savings in cost, but also allows the companies to achieve maximum software, hardware and operation compatibility throughout their installed base. It also gives the companies an opportunity to choose upgrade timing that best suits them, not the timing dictated by a manufacturer. Some recent surveys found that almost 80% of companies buy refurbished equipment to lower their capital expenses.
Healthy Refurbished Industry and availability of refurbished equipment on open market are beneficial to original manufacturers of that equipment. Apart from requirement of global environmental regulations it allows budget oriented customers, who are loyal to a manufacturer, to stay with a brand they trust instead of switching to a cheaper, lower quality, and limited functionality networking gear that IT managers often call "no name junk".
Recycling through the use of refurbished equipment is good for the environment.
Global environmental regulations such as "The Restriction on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances" and "The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive" have caused a significant new trend: used hardware products are being refurbished and resold on the open market by major OEMs and its partners.