How to Reduce the Costs of Buying Modules
By ksp | April 24, 2012
You might find various online merchants selling great SFP transceivers for your business needs, but many have large markups on their product lines that leave little room for any savings. Others tend to liquidate their products as soon as new modules arrive, offering them at a large discount to help lure potential clients. Regardless of whether you purchase the items new, used or at a discount, SFP devices will cost a business a couple hundred dollars just to buy them, making them an expensive purchase for anyone.
When To Shop
The moment most folks start to look for an SFP transceiver is when one of them malfunctions and fails to keep transmitting the information as it once did. Although this idea seems great, purchasing a module when it breaks may not be the best thing for you, mainly because you may wind up paying more for a transceiver than if you had bought it sooner. Wait till the item begins to show signs of wear and see if you can either replace the part or if you have to order a new one altogether to help you sort through different merchant catalogs and find the best deals around. If you purchase a Cisco GLC-T module, you’re going to pay for the price the merchant sells it at, whether or not it’s on sale, because you need the product to continue to help operate the servers. Waiting till the last minute permits you very little leeway to wait for discounts or buy from a cheaper dealer with bigger discounts and better product lines.
What to Look For
You want to avoid ordering from the OEM, and instead look for alternative items that can do the work you need without the higher cost of the original manufacturer’s devices. If you want to save even more on these modules, you could look for businesses that offer large discounts on their aging product lines, but that means purchasing something with older features. Ordering two or three-year old products at a steep discount could be great, but if the Cisco SFP transceivers come with features that are no longer useful, or fail to provide a certain compatibility, don’t get them. It’s good to purchase refurbished devices or from a third-party dealer rather than the manufacturer itself to avoid paying higher prices for modules.
