Hello username! Today I will tell you one entertaining story about our long-suffering faceted Russian market. I am one of the co-founders of a company that sells used servers. And we will talk about the B2B equipment market. I’ll start with grumbling: “I remember how our market went under the table on foot ...” And now it is celebrating its first anniversary (5 years, after all), that’s why I wanted to indulge in nostalgia a little and tell how it all began.
How it all began, username
Sales of used servers in Russia started relatively recently (below is the answer why). We met the start of these sales, as usual, with skepticism and distrust. However, the economic crisis of those years (the exchange rate of the ruble made several sharp dives against the dollar and the euro at the end of 2014) drove demand, and the development of the subject went by leaps and bounds.
In general, the market for used professional computing equipment originated in the United States back in the 80s, but rapid growth arose in the early 2000s during the crisis (the time of the "collapse of dot-coms"). In Russia, everything started a little later, because. since the beginning of the century, the IT services of domestic companies have often lived on the principle “we are too poor to buy cheap” (well, or they had their own “collective farm” as server capacities). In 2014-2015, at that “unforgettable time” when the dollar jumped twice - and the prices of imported everything too - this was precisely what gave the necessary impetus to the development of the used equipment market in the country.
In the first 3 years, demand grew rapidly and relentlessly. For clarity, let's look at the numbers. In 2015, our turnover amounted to 20 million rubles per year, in 2016 - already 90 million, and in 2017 - 143 million per year. Thus, in three years, he grew 7 times, Carl!
By the way, Habr also made a significant contribution to the development of the market back in 2015. At that time, posts began to appear here both about the used market and about , which aroused great interest in the topic of the “new life” of the used “iron”.
The market for used servers is mainly represented by companies that buy server equipment from data centers, providing a quick sale of the hardware removed from the balance sheet, and for consumers a fairly high level of performance with a significant reduction in costs.
A year after the start of the business, we posted here an article with a story about and immediately sold the entire stock, and “from above” also pre-orders flew in ... If in numbers, only our turnover increased 6 times that month! And we think that the “wave” caught not only our company.
Numbers, sister, numbers!
The co-founder of our company is a girl, and she is in charge of market analytics. Below are a few introductions to the market from her:
1.SEGMENTS. The used equipment market can be roughly divided into two segments: platforms and accessories. Demand has varied greatly over the years. In 2016, platforms accounted for 61% of sales, in 2017 the demand for these two positions almost equaled (platforms - 47%, components - 53%), the year turned out to be a transitional one, because. 2018 has already become the exact opposite of the 16th - 38% of sales came from platforms and 62% from components, and the trend is in favor of components. By 2020, we expect another increase in the imbalance in the market structure. According to data for 10 months of 2019, the share of components is now 70%, and next year it will be up to 80%, and 20% - the share of platforms.
The reason is this: in order for the platforms of past years to show performance comparable to modern servers, users have to buy top-end processors of previous generations, the price of which often exceeds the cost of the server platform itself.
Chart 1. Structure of sales by years
2. SEASONS. The seasonality of the market cannot be ignored. Demand increases in March and October, and in summer, as in most markets, there is a sharp decline. At the end of the year, the growing demand clearly correlates with the desire to “master” the rest of the annual budgets. So by Halloween, the market is regularly hot. In March, apparently, on the eve of the “potatoes” and, again, the end of the financial year, companies that keep their records not according to the calendar year buy second-hand servers based on quick commissioning.
3. STOPPERS. The issue of selling used equipment is inextricably linked with accounting, because it has to be written off from the balance sheet at the end of its service life. And in our market one could trace the typical laziness of accounting - it was easier to write off. As a result, large companies in 2015 were often unable to sell their used assets, skipping the moment of sale at residual value and “falling into” disposal costs. Unfortunately, today the picture is still the same.
We hope that this will change soon - more large companies will come to the market ready to supply equipment for large-scale sales. And through the prism of the current environmental boom (hello Grete), it is still more beautiful: longer service life - less disposal. Small and medium-sized businesses also benefit from this - you can use second-hand equipment of excellent quality for little money. And let's not forget about the funds raised by equipment suppliers - profit is always better than write-off costs.
Stop stop. And who needs it at all?
Far from the topic of the used equipment market, the question could already be ripe: “Where is the money? Who specifically takes entire racks of used servers?”
According to our internal statistics, it can be seen that the main consumers in the market are hosting providers (23% of our market works for them), followed by system integrators (14%), then demand is generated by software development companies (8%), media ( 6%), retail companies (5%). The rest of the market (almost 44%) is divided between manufacturing and wholesale companies, Internet providers, construction companies (yes, they need their own server rooms, at least for architectural offices), corporate resellers, online stores. And, not surprisingly, most of them are concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg, although other regions, as the diagram illustrates, do not stand aside.
Chart 2. Geography of sales by federal districts of Russia. Capitals prevail.
Graph 3. Specialization of clients by industry. IT companies are on fire.
And again they dug up the stewardess. Not everything went smoothly
In fact, the entry of used server equipment to the market was not met with wide open arms by IT specialists, as it might seem, and even now it is not easy. The first thing we and our competitors faced was the problem of trust. Oddly enough, it must be conquered!
Often a dialogue with large hosting companies came up with phrases from the series “used - we don’t need it”. “You are restoring servers!” - a rather offensive accusation was made against the technical process of blowing off (in the literal sense) a thin layer of dust from cases and boards, testing and packaging a workable hardware. However, the topic has nothing to do with us.
“Ref”, from refurbishment, refers to a product as a result of the restoration of damaged hardware at the factory by block replacement
We absolutely understand the distrust that arises in any second-hand thing, especially when it comes to expensive equipment, and that is why we (and many competitors subsequently) introduced the "trick" with a free test. For two weeks, our clients could work with the server for free. The main way to the hearts of customers has become a common position for our industry regarding the guarantee (as a rule, it exceeds the guarantee of the manufacturers themselves) and the hassle-free exchange on demand with little or no verification. Thanks again to the practice of the St. Petersburg "RIK Firm", which actively sold and changed all the "zero" PC components without question.
The second problem was the negligence of suppliers. Their senseless and merciless concern for technology sometimes made our eyes bleed. (Impressionable do not read!)
Case 1. We work with the States, and they package the memory they ship to us in an anti-static box with a slot for each stick. Chic, shine, beauty. And how did the first delivery from a large Russian company arrive? It turned out that they prefer to pour "a little memory" into the box ... After this incident, we drew up instructions for packaging and quality control.
Case 2. In one of the large data centers of the Russian Federation, servers were released. For lack of a balcony, the owners decided to store the servers in an open warehouse. On the sand. Under the snow Only part on pallets. We just threw up our hands and left.
Have you ever had to explain to domestic suppliers what is neat and careful?
And yes, it is precisely because of such stories that we prefer to buy equipment from Western suppliers.
Thanks Mark, we're ready! China, exit
The state of the market for used servers at the end of 2019 is “the baby has grown up, the photo in the foreign country needs to be updated.” Hosters are no longer squeamish about new Chinese equipment, having got used to its prices, but they still look in the direction of the “Americans”.
Hosters are “full”, they are accustomed to prices in foreign currency and can afford to buy new equipment. At one time, SuperMicro 6016 servers (now obsolete) flooded the market, and the operating costs (OPEX) associated with it are increasing against the background of the current wave of equipment generations, because. older hardware consumes significantly more electricity and needs more efficient cooling than new models. However, in the US, another wave of “new” used equipment from large companies is approaching the market, which cannot but rejoice.
A piece of RKN and an unclear future
However, the main question of the “baby” on the eve of the 5th anniversary: “Why do I need my own server room?” There are also cloud hosting. The answer is simple: risks. But the risks associated with migrating to “cloud” hosting remain when you see nines disappearing from the 99,999% promised during the sale of SLA for several hours in a row… Competitors have appeared, but our company is in the lead in the top five of the largest players covering 80% of demand in the market.
We are aware that the Yarovaya law will continue to be the engine of our business in the niche of used servers and generate demand in any case. That awkward moment when this law comes into play. “Parents” and other “guardians” are still telling the market: “Buy your own server. It's safer that way, son." You don’t have to look far for an example of related risk — remember the “battle” between Roskomnadzor and Telegram. Just everything that came to hand was blocked from outside the Runet. The damage from downtime was sometimes simply [censored]… Ah, this eternal “we can repeat” from the ILV… So small and medium-sized businesses have acquired local file storages.
We are very much looking forward to the massive arrival of comrades with contracts for public procurement on the market. Their number is still small, which is probably due to the not always correct interpretation of FZ-44. In fact, not all public procurement involves the purchase of exclusively new equipment, so there are still opportunities to reduce an unnecessarily bloated budget where it is quite obvious.
Summing up, it is clear what to expect from the future, what to prepare for, but how the market as a whole will develop is anyone's guess. In the meantime, don't store servers the way our failed supplier did - on a pallet under the snow. Servers are the “hardware” of a thin microcontroller organization, they will not forgive.
PS: An interesting fact - used servers proved to be more reliable than new ones (at least, if we use the statistics of warranty claims). The explanation is simple - everything that can hypothetically break down in the server fails in the first year of operation. Accordingly, it changes immediately (under the manufacturer's warranty) even before resale. “Used breaks less often than new” - such an oxymoron, username 😉
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
By the way, how do you store obsolete equipment?
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7.4%Lives in the same data center as the work center8
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13.8%In office back rooms there is enough space for everything ... 15
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2.7%They took it to a warm warehouse, we are waiting for a reason to sell3
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6.4%Everything has already been sold. And a year has not passed
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3.7%Written off as unfortunate companies from article 4
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65.7%I just want to see the results
108 users voted. 22 users abstained.
Source: habr.com