XSi News & Updates: A Q2 Letter from Todd Bone

/ Blog, Hardware Lifecycle Management, IT Ops: Independent Hardware Support Value, Right to Repair – Call to Action! / By / Data Center Hardware Maintenance, IT Infrastructure, Right to Repair Legislation, Right to Repair Movement
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In and throughout this last quarter, the Right to Repair initiative (www.repair.org) has seen several major WINS, advancing the general public’s awareness and driving further bi-partisan support for legislation to protect consumers, rightful owners of data center hardware and minimizing e-waste. As a reader, if your role is in enterprise/data center IT, IT procurement, IT infrastructure – or, if your company provides IT infrastructure services, you might find it helpful to understand why XSi has supported this initiative since its origin.

Why XSi Supports “Right to Repair”

The Right to Repair Movement began in 2013-14 when several OEMs began to announce that firmware patches would no longer be available (for “select” products) when/if the rightful owner of the hardware ever moved hardware support agreements to an independent hardware maintenance provider. This “Third Party Maintenance (as referenced by Gartner)” industry supports post-warranty, End-of-Life, End-of-Support and End-of-Software-Maintenance hardware for enterprise IT departments at a much lower cost, and enabling owners to run this hardware for as long as they choose. …Read More.

For me, the issues are about rightful ownership of enterprise servers or data storage – as well as smartphones and automobiles. Such ownership SHOULD include entitlements to receive repairs quickly and having repair choices once these products exceed the warranties provided when the product was purchased. The issues also include the health of the small business industry that conducts such repairs, and the growth potential for small business opportunity in this country. Lastly, we have to do something about e-waste in this country and move away from being a “throw away” society. These things are so important to me that I was one of the founding members of the Right to Repair movement, and I currently sit on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Summary of the Biggest News of Q2 (most recent first):

  1. Mid-June: A National Right to Repair Bill has been filed in US Congress
  2. Early June: The New York Senate overwhelmingly passed Right to Repair legislation
  3. Early June: Canada clears key Right to Repair hurdle with a 330-0 vote
  4. May: The US Federal Trade Commission supports Right to Repair by finding manufacturers’ repair restrictions unwarranted
  5. March/April: Right to Repair for U.S. farmers receives significant attention from WSJ

As an individual/consumer, or as a business, you CAN get involved and help this initiative get further traction, in your state and now at the federal level. I suggest you start by:

  1. Showing your support as a consumer, within the state of your residence. Repair.org makes it easy and you only need to Click Here.
  2. Show your support to the US House of Representatives by contacting the congressperson of your district.

About The Author

Todd founded XS International in 1990, helping to build an independent IT support organization led by pioneering executives with proven tenures at Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. He holds a board of director positions with the world’s two most prominent associations for independent IT support providers – Service Industry Association (SIA) and ASCDI (hardware resellers). He was a founding member of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition (now known as Repair.org, and continues to serve on their Board of Directors. Very much a serial entrepreneur, Todd earned his Bachelor’s in Finance from Ohio State University and later completed a three-year Entrepreneurial Masters Program, given by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization & MIT Enterprise Forum. He now resides in the greater Dallas area with his family.

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