Rational use of HP Blade servers

Good day, dear habrovchane!
It so happened that I had 2 cabinets with blade servers (the total number of blades is 57). And then I had a question: “What am I to do with all this“ good ”?
Actually, under the cut described the configuration of iron and possible options for further developments. Who can help with practical advice - you are welcome!

So let's start with a little background ...
Iron was bought in 2008 in order to open a hosting center in our glorious regional center. They started hosting, it worked for half a year, did not bring any profit (I suppose, because of bad management and a lack of understanding of what needs to be done with this). As a result, the shop was closed, the equipment was turned off (but left at the provider’s site), it stood idle for three and a half years ... And then it was given to our company as payment for debts ...
Our company doesn’t need this kind of good for its needs; therefore, two scenarios are seen: either selling these servers or opening an additional business line (the same hosting) in order to use this hardware until it is completely out of date.


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Now I will dwell in greater detail on what, in my opinion, can be done with all this “good”.
Option one (theoretically, easier).
Sell ​​it all soon!
But then the question arises: who might need it?
I understand that for launching a new date (hosting) of the center such “hardware” will not work, because already quite outdated + the warranty has expired, and everyone wants a newer and more powerful + so that the guarantee with the accompaniment of the manufacturer was. It would be logical to assume that such equipment would be suitable for those data centers that want to increase their capacity without spending much ... But again, bad luck: I never found (maybe I looked badly) a single data in the spaces of our independent Nenka Ukraine center, where the similar equipment would be used, and very few people would agree to scale their capacities with the motley technique.
Then you will say that you need to advertise, put up for sale all of this, for some auctions ... but again I didn’t meet any specialized site forums ... but on our Aukro (analogous to Hammer in Russia) there are potential there are no buyers (several times he exhibited both servers individually or with entire cabinets - even no interest was observed)
As an option, put these servers on the international platform (the same eBay) - but how is it to sell it all, if the residents of the CIS can only buy? At the moment I am considering the possibility of finding a mediator from Europe / USA who would help to “push” it all (if you know such people, please let me know). I will immediately state that the price for the equipment is low, because We got it for a relatively low cost.
So, the decision to “sell”, which seemed trivial, is not so simple, and now I am increasingly beginning to lean towards the second scenario ...

Option two (difficult and long).
Open your hosting!
In theory, all the prerequisites for this are:

• The equipment is already on the site of the largest provider in the city.
• The relationship with the provider is good (even part of the cable belongs to our company).
• Really, and not nominally, there are no working hosting centers in the city, and there is definitely a demand for such services.
• The management of our company is not opposed to expanding its business.
• I have the most full of ambitions to run a serious IT project.

But besides this there are certain difficulties:

• In addition to ambition, IT education and a small management experience with sales experience, I have nothing behind me that could help in this matter.
• The problem of personnel. We need to find them somewhere, but we really don’t have a date (hosting) -cents in the city that actually work and bring profit. (I didn’t think up a different place to find a team). And if with the support you can somehow get out, then you will not find real specialists on setting up / launching such projects during the day with fire.
• These personnel need to pay salaries immediately, and the estimated profit from the project will not be immediately.
• The management of our company is not opposed to expanding its business, but is afraid to invest money without any guarantees for profits.

In general, the option of opening a hosting service seems to me more interesting, but there are still a lot of questions that I haven’t found the answer to ...

Well, at the end of the post, my appeal to the community: if anyone has any practical advice or experience in selling such equipment (experience in launching a data center or hosting service), I’m really looking forward to your comments. I hope that if not the article itself, so at least the comments to it will be interesting and useful not only for me, but also for many-many readers of Habra.