Hi all, I was at the last SWINOG and enjoyed the sessions and general exchange. Lately I have been seeing more cases where hardware availability is starting to influence design decisions again. Not at the level of the worst supply chain period, but still enough that lead times or platform shortages are pushing teams to look at alternatives. One example that came up recently was a network refresh where specific switching models were on long delivery. Instead of delaying the rollout, part of the design was adjusted to use already available gear, including refurbished units of the same platform, to stay consistent with the existing environment. It worked well as a bridge and avoided introducing a completely different vendor or OS layer. In general it feels like extending lifecycle and mixing new with existing hardware is becoming a bit more accepted again, especially when it avoids unnecessary complexity. I am working at Circular IT, where we spend most of our time sourcing network, compute and storage hardware, both refurbished and new, including kit that is no longer easy to get through standard channels. So I see these patterns quite often from the supply side as well. Curious how others here are handling refresh cycles and availability at the moment. Are you adjusting designs, or mostly sticking to standard procurement paths? Best regards, Francis

Best regards, Circular IT group Joop Geesinkweg 801 1096 AZ Amsterdam Netherlands +49 39 292 714 976 Francis Richter Account Manager We make IT circular Your go-to partner for Circular ITAD, Circular Workplace, Circular IT Infra – safe, secure, compliant and impactful. ​Visit circularitgroup.com