Things move fast in the data center. As “big data” plays an increasingly important role in the operations of more and more companies, even companies with relatively new equipment in their data centers are looking to upgrade. With newer storage technology like solid state drives (SSDs) allowing for higher capacity, higher density, and most importantly, higher speeds than existing systems, many companies are starting to see the economic sense of making upgrades sooner than their normal refresh cycles call for.

According to a recent report from Tech Pro Research, 84 percent of those responding to an online survey said they anticipated expanding their data center storage in 2014. If your company is planning a similar upgrade to your data center—and there’s a pretty good chance it is—what will you do with the “old” equipment once you replace it with faster, higher-capacity systems?

Your company made a substantial investment in these systems, and they’re not really that old. Especially if they’re fully functional and populated with drives, it’s reasonable to expect you’ll be able to recoup a significant amount of that investment by reselling the used arrays. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

• When a large number of organizations upgrade at the same time, the resale market becomes saturated with certain types of equipment, driving prices down.
• In many of these systems, as much as 50 percent of the original cost is in the software license. A new user would have to purchase a new license, meaning the hardware has a lot less value.

All is not lost, however. While even relatively new storage systems and arrays may not have much resale value, their drives do. Most hard drives capable of storing 300 gigabytes or more have a significant amount of resale value. But, if you’re going to go this route, beware. These drives can hold a huge amount of corporate data. To minimize the risk of a data breach, you should have documented proof that every drive was successfully wiped of data prior to sale.

Some OEMs and system service providers will perform certified data wiping, but it’s often more cost effective to have a certified data destruction partner do the job. Even better, find a certified data destruction provider that also specializes in asset remarketing. This partner will not only be able to securely remove the sensitive data stored on your used hard drives, but it will be able to get the best value for them on the resale market.