Zerowait Corporation

Where Do Transferable License Systems Come From?

This year, NetApp customers will lease more than $1 Billion in new hardware and software. While there are many reasons customers lease equipment, one of the primary reasons is to reduce the cost of the equipment over their contracted period of use (the length of the lease). To be able to offer reduced prices, the leasing companies must compute a residual (remaining) value for the equipment at the end of the lease that they can subtract from the purchase price when they compute the monthly payments. To retain more than parts value, NetApp provides the leasing companies with the right to transfer the licenses one time to a new customer. This way the systems can be sold as fully functional systems with legal access to NetApp software.

Which Licenses Come With The Systems?

NetApp determines which licenses will transfer for a particular head unit serial number. Some of this is dependent on the location of the filer. For example, almost all filers come with NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, and/or Cluster licenses. Further, filers that were sold in Europe often have SnapMirror or Nearstore/ASIS transferable, whereas units sold in the US aren’t likely to have those protocols transfer.

If the license you are looking for is not included with the system you are interested in, we can obtain a quote from NetApp for that license at the time of transfer.

Why Would I Purchase an Off-Lease System?

Our off-lease systems offer the performance and features of current NetApp systems at 40%-75% off current pricing.

Who Supports These Systems?

Under the terms of the contract NetApp has with the leasing companies, NetApp agrees to offer both software and hardware support for any system transferred to a new owner. This support is based on their published End Of Life/End Of Support dates, so the length of time a system may be supported by NetApp depends on the type of system. Zerowait supports all systems sold through this program, and continues to provide support long after NetApp’s EOS.

NetApp Says There Are No Transferable Licenses!

NetApp sales people are commission based which creates a strong incentive for them to sell you new hardware and to create doubts about the license transferability program. We would be happy to send you copies of the transfer letters written on NetApp letterhead as proof of the legitimacy of license transferability. NetApp has been transferring their licenses for over 10 years and NetApp's leasing partners have assured us that NetApp has committed to growing its lease program so there will be a continuous supply of these affordable NetApp licensed systems.