We Want to Thank You…

Hey folks! Like a young infant, progressing from having the limited mobility of a capsized turtle to stumbling about like a club-footed drunken sailor, 2014 is just getting its footing (*insert ‘they grow up so fast’ sentiment here*) and we’re happy to say that with this new year comes a new planIT HARDWARE.

Did you hear that we’ve moved into a new location? We wrote about it here.

Yep, we’ve settled in to our official new location in Smyrna, just outside of Atlanta. The warehouse is bigger and comfortably houses all of our inventory (with enough room for a new, half-court basketball setup). There’s a workout room with mirrored walls and a mounted flatscreen TV, a full kitchen with dishwasher (no more pruney fingers for this keyboard) and industrial Keurig machine (“Coffee? Sure, give me 45 seconds.”), and a large open-floor cube farm (hi guys!). On top of this, we’ve got a new, dedicated testing lab that our head technician, Paul Saunders, is quite pleased with. All of these factors add up to one thing: our company is growing.

For those of you who have been following our journey in one way or another, 2014 was a big year, and after two award wins and 2 new hires in 2013 (not to mention our fourth consecutive year of revenue growth), we’re ready to keep growing. Now we have a place to grow into.

Thanks to all of our clients, vendors, end-users, and readers of the blog. It’s one big family at planIT HARDWARE, and we like to think of you all as part of that.

In an Effort to Push Upgrades, Cisco Raises Prices on Older Switch Units

According to Network World, Cisco is increasing the price of older Catalyst switch units, hoping to motivate consumers towards the purchase of newer equipment. Price hikes are as high as 67% in some cases, with replacement parts and associated accessories being marked up as well.

The main targets in this change are some switches in the Catalyst 3000, 4000 and 6000 families. No new switching products will see a price increase, according to Cisco, but the company does confirm the price increase on older gear. “There is a slight price increase for a very small subset of older Catalyst models that now have a next generation option available to customers,” said a Cisco spokesperson.

Those products that are older, however, are seeing an average mark-up of $14,000. A Catalyst 6000 chassis bundle with the item number VS-C6506E-S720-10G, for example, will see an increase from $33,995 to $47,995.

This move by Cisco is an alternative to placing some of their more popular older units on end-of-life status. With a reseller like planIT HARDWARE, consumers can still purchase these products at 60-90% off list price, even less than purchasing the lower-priced next generation upgrades directly from Cisco. We are reliable, dedicated, and our products are all tested and certified, so you can be sure you’re working with a trustworthy vendor to provide you with first-rate products at secondary market prices.

These new price increases go into effect starting November 2^nd.

Cisco in the Spotlight: “Iron Man 3” and Telepresence

Did anyone notice all of the awesome technology in Iron Man 3? No, not the suits—the Cisco telepresence units used throughout the film. Okay…so I work in this industry, my eyes are often on the lookout for the brands that are fixing their name to tech hardware both fictional and real. Sometimes, technology so advanced that you never it knew it existed will make its mainstream debut in a blockbuster film, such as Iron Man 3, and it will be very much real. But back to the suits: they were pretty remarkable.

In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) has built his latest and greatest suit, the Mark 42, a weaponized suit of armor similar to all the others he’s made but with an added flair of telepresence. Telepresence is essentially technology, in various forms, that allows one to feel as though or gives the effect that one is present where they are not. This can be achieved via telerobotics and teleoperations—remote controlling—much like how Tony can intuitively control the Mark 42 suit, see through it and speak through it without actually being in the suit itself. Very enticing stuff, indeed.

On top of the suit, TelePresence video conferencing units by Cisco were also incorporated into the film. Cisco is the number one name in IT hardware, and planIT HARDWARE is a used Cisco reseller, offering new-in-box, new-open-box and refurbished products at 60-90% off list price.

CHAT WITH A SALES REP NOW!

Keeping Up With the Joneses: Cisco Acquires Whiptail, Joins the Data Storage Market

Who were the Joneses? And why is it that they had everything? Out of all the family names, the Joneses get picked to be covetously compared to for eternity. I wonder where this all started…

Allegedly, the phrase, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” originated in reference to the over-developing, wealthy Jones family of New York in the mid-1800s, from which American novelist Edith Wharton descended. The Joneses married into the empire known as Chemical Bank, owned by one John Mason. The clan then began to out-build their wealthy peers in the Hudson Valley, forcing those around them to “keep up.” Popularization of the term came from an eponymously titled 1913 comic strip that ran in papers for 26 years. In this comic, the Joneses of the title are the unseen-but-often-referred-to-neighbors of the main character. With the ubiquitousness of the comic came the normalizing of the phrase that we now know today.

Now that we’ve established just how daunting idiom etymology can be…

This past Tuesday marked the day Cisco would finally make its entrance into the world of data storage. After negotiations with Whiptail, a privately held Whippany, NJ-based leader in memory systems (particularly flash storage), Cisco finally got its hands on technology that could help its servers process information much, much more efficiently. According to Cisco Systems Inc., such a move will “simplify customers’ data center environments by delivering the required performance in a fraction of the data center floor space,” effectively condensing the jobs of several pieces of IT hardware into a more lightweight data system.

Good for Cisco. It seems they have caught up with the likes of HP, Dell, EMC, and IBM, who all have invested in flash storage vendors. It would appear that keeping up with increasing performance demands means keeping up with Joneses.

 

CHAT WITH A SALES REP NOW

planIT Hardware Makes the 2013 Inc. 5000 List

It is not the quantity of a person’s life that counts, but the quality of it; so it goes for businesses as well. Today is a proud day for planIT HARDWARE. We are pleased to announce that we have been ranked as an Inc. 5000 honoree.

Inc has been exalting privately held companies for the last 32 years and with this has created an exclusive club of which planIT HARDWARE is very honored to be a part. This particular list highlights the fastest-growing private companies in America. According to the business publication, “The Inc. 5000 was harder to get into this year than ever in its history.”

This year’s list was ranked by evaluating revenue growth accrued from 2009 to 2012. Inc. magazine Editor Jane Berentson states that, “now, more than ever, we depend on Inc. 5000 companies to spur innovation, provide jobs, and drive the economy forward. Growth companies, not large corporations, are where the action is.” Qualifying businesses must have been founded and begun generating revenue by March 31, 2009; the minimum requirement for revenue attained in 2009 is $100,000, and this figure needs to have reached $2 million by the end of 2012. Additionally, such companies must have held for-profit, private, U.S.-based and independent status as of December 31, 2012.

“I’m very pleased we’ve been afforded this kind of recognition,” says planIT HARDWARE Founder and CEO Paul Hogg. “It’s both exciting and humbling. planIT HARDWARE has been keeping the momentum going by having a tight team that works closely together. We maintain great relationships with our vendors and clients and treat each sale on an individual level, striving to provide whatever it is that customer needs on this or that particular order. If each transaction is a success, from the sales interaction to the shipping experience, then what we are left with is a series of successes. This makes it easier to refine those things we’d like to grow in as a company, and, as a result, the revenue growth has kept coming.”

Our company is a leader in the new and refurbished network hardware industry. We work with fellow IT hardware brokers and vendors as well as end-users to offer equipment at 60-90% off list prices. Our talented in-house technicians test every unit that comes and goes, our shipping team is flexible and efficient, and our sales force works with a back-breaking zeal to offer the best deals to our clients.

planIT HARDWARE ranked #1185 out of 5000 on the list, placing it also as #5 in the division of Top 100 Computer Hardware Companies.

The Curious Case of Digital Hardware

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, originally a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, then a film by David Fincher, tells the story of a man who ages backwards. In the movie adaptation, the seemingly ageless (I mean, c’mon…really) Brad Pitt is the perfect lead as Benjamin Button, a child who is born a small old man, who grows into a middle aged man, and so on, progressively getting younger as time passes. With such a unique and logic-defying concept, we at planIT HARDWARE immediately were reminded of how digital technology and its hardware progresses in much the same way. The first computers took up entire rooms; the first cell phone was as big as its inventor’s head. Now, we have palm-sized devices that fit in our pockets and serve several functions all in one small, sleek unit. From boxy, slow and bulky to fast, compact and sleek: this is the progression of digital hardware, and it bears a striking resemblance to that of Fitzgerald’s character.

Whether it’s new and slim or older and bulkier, we’ve got whatever you need here at our IT hardware warehouse, all in tip-top shape.

With devices like the Apple “iWatch” in development, let’s just hope these technological advancements continue to focus on function and don’t devolve into mere childish gimmick.

CHAT WITH A SALES REP NOW!

Good Call: Video Conferencing and How “Back to the Future Pt II” Predictions Were Right

The Future: It’s all very exciting.

The 1989 sci-fi classic Back to the Future Pt II has become increasingly more relevant in the last few years. In the film, Marty McFly and the Doc travel forward to the year 2015. With only two years to go until the duo’s date of arrival, people are chomping at the bit for a hoverboard more than ever. In having to construct a vision of the future to set the movie in, Director Robert Zemeckis and his team ended up inventing, interpreting and incorporating a lot of technology and trends that have since become a present reality. Today, we’re going to focus on one innovation in particular.

Even as far back as the advent of The Jetsons, people have been daydreaming and clamoring for personal, digital technological advancements…in both the home and the office. One of the most common desires: video calling. While Skype has pioneered the home part, Cisco has had a handle on the office game for quite some time now. According to CTO Guido Jouret, Cisco TelePresence has been integrated into 75% of the Fortune 500. Cisco’s TelePresence technology makes it possible to have high-definition video calls that are about as interactive as it gets, short of meeting in person. It is this kind of technology that brought Michael J. Fox and Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) together on screen. It is this kind of technology that allows for someone in New Jersey to teach live to students in South Korea, for the Brown University Freshman to stay connected to her family while figuring out the difference between sociology and psychology, for the President to take a meeting while maybe finally finishing that pen-and-ink sketch of a snowy barn he’s been working on (everyone has to unwind). Whatever the function, Cisco has made Zemeckis’ and many a fanboy’s dream of video calling come true…and it’s not even October 21^st, 2015 yet.

planIT HARDWARE carries stock of Cisco CTS-1000, along with other TelePresence units, so contact us for a quote today!

CHAT WITH A SALES REP NOW!

No Messing with a G-unit

Today, we’re going to take a look at the King of Bling in the world of Cisco switches…the G-unit.

The G-unit is a type of high-end switch, comprised of several Ethernet ports that are all infused with gigabit speeds. A veritable entourage of ports allows these units to reach speeds of Ethernet connectivity that surpass its megabit-capacity counterparts. These ports allow data to be transferred rapidly, fired back and forth across a network. Protect yo neck.

With today’s high-traffic network demands, and in a time where digital multitasking is more available (and expected) than ever, a G-unit is an invaluable device to provide the necessary bandwidth. Let’s say you walk into the conference room and are asked to give a presentation…but you’re giving that presentation not just to everyone in the room, but also to the clients in Asia via an IP video call; you’re sending out an outline to everyone present; you’re pulling the website up to demonstrate recent changes made to the user interface. The power of Gigabit Ethernet that a G-unit can provide can make all of this possible for multiple devices at once.

No one can mess with the G-unit.

CHAT WITH A SALES REPRESENTATIVE NOW

planIT Powerhouse: Our Warehouse Has It All

Intense, right?

The cheetah: he wears sunglasses and sells us cheesy corn puffs, he gets confused for the leopard (and vice versa) on regular basis (I had to Google the difference myself, just to make sure), and he’s wicked fast–the fastest animal on land, in fact. Wednesday, the New York Times reported that a new study has found the cheetah’s greatest advantage to be not so much in its speed alone, but in the versatility of its movements: its agility, its ability to pivot and leap sideways, change directions abruptly and slow down at a rate of as much as 9 m.p.h. in each stride.

What’s any of this have to do with planIT HARDWARE, you ask? Everything—as you’ll see.

Our warehouse is one giant, furry cat with cool spots. Not only do we carry used IT hardware that will produce high speeds for any network, but we’ve got the strength of firewall security devices, the versatility of any number of Cisco chassis, and the craftiness of hundreds of modules that will upgrade your network system into a force to be reckoned with. Let us know what you need and what we can do for you.

Cicada Season: A New Brood of PowerConnect Switches Emerges

If you’re fortunate enough to live in one of the areas along the East Coast—between the Carolinas and Connecticut—that will be graced with the presence of the 17-year Cicada swarm, then I’m envious of you. No, really—we won’t be seeing much of the action, if any, down here in the Peach State.

It’s been said that some areas can average up to 1.5 million cicadas per acre; that’s a lot at once. Here at planIT, we’ll occasionally get large, incoming swarms of IT hardware, both new-in-box and new-out-of-box and also refurbished.

Recently, we received a brood of Dell 3548 PowerConnect 3500 Series Switches.

Locust? More like, low cost. We’re fully stocked with these bad boy switches, and since we’re planIT HARDWARE, they’re going to be about 80% less than the list price. The 3548P is a 48-port stackable switch that is capable of supplying power to PoE-enabled devices like WiFi access points. So what are you waiting for? Come plague us with inquiries and orders!