How I sourced enterprise hardware for cheap
One of the biggest surprises when I got into homelabbing was just how cheap enterprise hardware can be. Servers that cost €15,000 new, sold for €50-150 on the second-hand market a decade later. Network switches that ran the backbone of a company’s infrastructure, available for less than a pizza. 10-gigabit networking gear that was out of reach for home users a few years ago, now completely affordable second-hand. The reason is simple: businesses refresh their hardware on a predictable cycle — typically every 3-5 years. When they do, the old gear gets sold off, donated, or scrapped. Most of it still has years of useful life left. ...