Line of work 06
Decommissioning and buy-back
Retired equipment is a liability until the data is gone and an asset afterwards. Most estates are written off at zero because nobody had the time to find out what they were worth.
How a decommission runs
Inventory
A list per serial number: model, configuration, condition, location and rack position. Produced on site, not estimated from a purchase record.
Valuation
A written offer per line, with the lines that have no residual value marked as such. You see what is worth money before anything is unracked.
Data
Media are sanitised to a recognised standard, or physically destroyed where policy requires it. A certificate is issued per serial number, before the equipment leaves the site if you ask for it.
Removal
Unracking, packing, and transport under insurance. The rack is left clear and the elevation updated.
Settlement
The agreed value is paid, or credited against your next order. Anything with no value is passed to a licensed recycler and the disposal record is sent to you.
Why the value usually surprises people
Two identical racks can be worth very different amounts. What moves the number is rarely the age of the platform: it is whether the units are complete, whether the configuration is one that is still in demand, whether the caddies and rails are still with the chassis, and whether anyone can prove where the equipment came from.
That is also why the valuation happens before the removal, on the real inventory. A number given over the phone from a model name is a guess, and guesses in this direction are always low.