Everyone knows the value of new enterprise hard drives when it comes to data center storage. But if you haven’t given much consideration to factory recertified drives, now might be the time to take a closer look. Here’s the lowdown on how factory recertified differs from new (prime) drives, and the benefits of including the former in your enterprise storage mix.
What is a factory recertified drive?
The first thing to know about factory recertified drives is that they are tested by the manufacturer at their factory using the same rigorous testing process, approved suppliers, and latest firmware that new drives must adhere to. This ensures recertified drives are vetted according to the latest standards.
Factory recertified drives come factory packaged with a standard six-month warranty. That, along with the stringent testing guidelines required to earn the recertified label, make these drives the lowest-failing drives in the market.
Do factory recertified drives offer the same reliability as new drives?
Yes they do. In fact, factory recertified drives are in some respects more rigorously tested than prime drives.
Mark Kier, director of business development at Horizon Technology, says the benefits of factory recertified are clear. “You are getting a drive directly from the OEM that has actually gone through the test process twice and has the same quality and functionality as a new drive.”
For customers still wary about the reliability of factory recertified drives, Kier says the solution is simple: “We allow customers to sample the FR drives and have their engineering team test how they perform in live environments.“
“This usually wipes out all objections because they see the same value as new, due to the functionality and reliability that comes from factory recertified drives.”
What do factory recertified drives cost?
Expect on average 20%+ cost savings over new enterprise drives. When your data center requires drives in bulk, the savings can rack up fast.
What testing process do factory recertified drives go through?
Every drive that earns the quality statement of “Recertified” goes through the same stringent processes applied to new drives. Recertification testing always applies the latest standard firmware and rigorous procedures, ensuring all the benefits of the latest product designs.
During the testing process, all drives are wiped according to stringent security standards such as ADISA.
Drives that pass the recertification testing process will receive a unique label certifying their factory recertified status.
How common are factory recertified drives in the data center?
Factory recertified drives are more common than you might think.
“Many customers are already using factory recertified in their systems but may not know it,” says Stephen Buckler, Horizon’s chief operating officer. “When they send drives back to the manufacturer for warranty, most manufacturers these days are sending factory recertified back.”
This becomes apparent when decommissioning data centers for clients, Buckler explains. “When we are doing the breakdown of the equipment, we find a lot of factory recertified drives in these data center servers because some drives have gone back to warranty.”
How do you purchase factory recertified drives?
These drives can only be distributed in the market by authorized distributors, such as Horizon Technology, to ensure authentic, quality parts. Horizon is the #1 Factory Recertified storage distributor for both legacy and current product lines.
Working with an asset recovery specialist and authorized stocking distributor such as Horizon Technology, IT and supply chain managers can leverage our long-term relationship with the HDD OEMs and benefit from our customer-centric approach around storage supply challenges.
‘Horizon is the largest stocking distributor, so from a supply chain perspective we can support your immediate or long-term demand by part number or capacity,” Kier says. “With our global stocking locations, Horizon can provide just in time inventory for our customers worldwide.”
Customers also turn to factory recertified drives to support stock outs and gaps in their supply chain. “Our storage customers enjoy the added benefit of supporting extended storage SLAs with factory recertified drives at or below their current cost.”
Explore the benefits
If you are in any doubt about the positive impact factory recertified drives have in the data center, get in touch with Horizon and learn more about the role they can play alongside prime drives in your enterprise storage mix.
