Go Communications Systems Ltd

Go Communications Systems Ltd We provide refurbished networks, finished to exceptional standards. Go Communications is committed to the highest levels of reliability and quality.

Our state-of-the-art Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) development facility 'soak tests' every device and component we sell: only if it meets our exceptionally high standards can it be accepted onto our market-leading two-year warranty programme. Second owner Cisco equipment is fully refurbished. Any accessories are then added, and the unit is professionally re-packaged ready for despatch

- all within 24 hours. Nearly all of our pre-owned and refurbished network equipment is sold in a new or 'as new' condition. We can provide detailed reports on the condition of any item, enabling you to make a truly informed decision.

AI Bubble or Just a Bump in the Road?Until recently, I wasn’t sure whether AI was heading for a bubble .. and if so, whe...
18/08/2026

AI Bubble or Just a Bump in the Road?

Until recently, I wasn’t sure whether AI was heading for a bubble .. and if so, when (or how loudly) it might pop.

There are definitely echoes of the dot-com boom and bust. Back then, companies rushed to build massive websites and networks in anticipation of traffic that never came. Many of those sites were clunky and over-hyped ..remember https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xJng60? (or was it boohoo… I can never remember!).

The bubble burst because the internet itself just wasn’t ready .. speeds were slow, infrastructure was limited, and the tech hadn’t caught up with the ambition.

I can see a similar dynamic with AI today. Demand is real, but if there’s not enough power to fire up all those GPUs, we might see some shiny new data centres sitting idle for a while ...digital white elephants waiting for the grid to catch up.
Still, just like the internet, any “AI bump” will likely be temporary. Once the infrastructure catches up, things will accelerate again ..only faster and bigger than before.

Just my two cents.

Can you tell the difference? Of course you can.One comes in a plain brown box. The other arrives in a Cisco-branded one....
14/08/2026

Can you tell the difference? Of course you can.

One comes in a plain brown box. The other arrives in a Cisco-branded one.

A long time ago (around 1999, which now feels like a different industry entirely), we had a customer request that caught us slightly off guard: they wanted used equipment to look and feel like new again.

At first, it sounded like a stretch. Then we saw who it was — Germany’s largest telecoms company at the time. That changed the tone of the conversation pretty quickly.

So we got to work.

We started with the device itself: repairing cosmetic damage, filling scratches, priming, and respraying until it looked like it had never been anywhere near a rack in its previous life. Any empty slots were properly populated with blanking plates, rack mount kits were checked and standardised, and every unit received a new power cable matched to its destination.

Then came the part most people overlook — the presentation.

We designed packaging specifically around the equipment, not the other way round.

Today we hold around 60 different box sizes in stock, with internal end caps engineered with cut-outs so we can adapt for minor variations without multiplying SKUs endlessly. It’s a small detail, but it keeps consistency high and waste under control.

In the end, it wasn’t just refurbished hardware. It was a controlled, repeatable process for making “used” feel a lot closer to “new than expected”.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

The switch where it all began.Back in the late ’90s, Cisco acquired Crescendo Communications — the move that gave birth ...
13/08/2026

The switch where it all began.

Back in the late ’90s, Cisco acquired Crescendo Communications — the move that gave birth to one of the most iconic switches in networking history: the Catalyst 5500.

Developed from the first-gen Catalyst 5000, the 5500 quickly became the go-to modular switch for large enterprise networks everywhere. With its backplane-based architecture, hot-swappable supervisor engines, and support for high-density Fast Ethernet and early Gigabit Ethernet, it was a true powerhouse of its time.

As I was writing this, I thought about sending these legends (pictured) off to the great data center in the sky… but then I heard Scotty’s voice in my head: “I cannae let her go yet, Captain — she’s still got life in her!”

Some classics just deserve one last warp-speed salute.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

10/08/2026

Happy Monday, you beautiful people.

Here’s something to help take the edge off those Monday morning blues.

Apologies in advance for the Tinder analogy, but matching the perfect piece of used network equipment to a customer is a bit like dating. The difference with us? We get you as close to perfection as it gets.

And because no two days—or devices—are ever the same in the networking world, we’ve built a lot of experience turning something ugly into something pretty again.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

40 Cisco 2960X switches.3 engineers.2 sprayers.3 refurb techs.51 hours of hard graft.Result? Only one switch failed to m...
07/08/2026

40 Cisco 2960X switches.
3 engineers.
2 sprayers.
3 refurb techs.
51 hours of hard graft.

Result? Only one switch failed to make the cut — lady luck was definitely with us.

The customer had been burned before with “refurbished” gear that wasn’t exactly showroom-ready, so they wanted proof this time. Photos, videos, the works. We were happy to deliver — because in our book, there’s only one level of refurbished network equipment. And it’s exactly what you see in the picture.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

06/08/2026

Here we’ve got a Cisco Nexus 93180 — and yes, it’s the latest FX3 model, still very much current and nowhere near end of life.

A lot of people associate us with refurbishing older, legacy kit (which I do enjoy talking about), but the reality is most of what we do day-to-day is working with current-generation hardware like this.

What caught my eye on this one is a small detail — the access panel on the top. That’s your entry point to the DRAM.

In the past, upgrading memory meant taking the whole lid off and getting far more involved than you’d like. Now, Cisco have made it much simpler. Out of the box you get 16GB, but if your software image demands more, you can upgrade to 32GB without turning it into a full strip-down exercise.

It’s a small design change, but a sensible one — less time, less hassle, and fewer reasons to put off an upgrade.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make life easier.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

Cisco’s MDS (Multilayer Director Switch) launch in the early 2000s was one of those quiet but significant shifts in data...
04/08/2026

Cisco’s MDS (Multilayer Director Switch) launch in the early 2000s was one of those quiet but significant shifts in data centre history.

At the time, Cisco owned the LAN world, but SANs (storage networks) were a different universe entirely ~ dominated by Brocade and McDATA. If LAN was Cisco’s kingdom, SAN was the bit they weren’t invited into.

So Cisco did what Cisco often did back then: they didn’t ask for permission.

First came Andiamo Systems in 2001 ~ a stealthy, well-funded spin-out packed with storage engineers. That eventually became the foundation of the MDS 9000 series after Cisco acquired them in 2002.

The timing was perfect. Fibre Channel storage was exploding, but storage admins were famously cautious buyers. You didn’t just “sell” into that world ~ you had to be blessed by the storage vendors themselves.

So Cisco leaned into partnerships.

EMC led the charge (keen to challenge Brocade), with HP and IBM also signing up. Suddenly Cisco wasn’t just a networking company trying to break into storage ~ it was sitting inside the storage giants’ catalogues.
What followed was one of the more interesting branding exercises in enterprise IT:

IBM went full commitment ~ repainting MDS gear in “IBM black” and re-badging it entirely as if it had always belonged there.

HP took the middle ground ~ a bit of co-branding, a badge swap, and a polite nod to Cisco underneath.

EMC took the minimalist approach ~ essentially: “it’s fine, just stick a Connectrix label on it and ship it.”
Same hardware, three different identities depending on whose procurement form you were filling in.

By the end, Cisco had effectively done what it set out to do ~ break into SANs, shake up a quiet duopoly, and quietly become unavoidable in yet another layer of the data centre.

Not bad for a company that started out just routing packets.

If you’ve got any requirements, feel free to drop me a message or email: [email protected]

Started just before a financial crisis.Grew through a pandemic.Still here... still solving problems.Go Communications tu...
03/08/2026

Started just before a financial crisis.
Grew through a pandemic.
Still here... still solving problems.
Go Communications turns 19 today.

Back in 2007, we knew starting a business wasn’t going to be easy… we just didn’t realise quite how “interesting” it would get. Markets wobble, rules change, supply chains disappear overnight .. and yet, here we are.

Through all of it, we’ve kept the same approach: stay calm, think clearly, and fix the problem in front of us. No drama, no shortcuts...just getting it done properly.

We’re still punching above our weight, still backing our experience, and still proving that you don’t always need new to get the job done right.

As for the next ten years? Who knows. A bit of calm and stability would be nice… but I won’t hold my breath.

Refurbishing Networks to New Condition / Brand New Network Airfilters / 3rd Party Optics

29/07/2026

The 20G version of the Cisco ASR 1001-X is still a seriously capable router.

In networking circles, the ASR1001-X became a bit of a legend — the “Swiss Army Knife” of edge routers.

Originally introduced around 2014 as the successor to the first-generation ASR1001, it had a very respectable run before going EOL in 2022. Eight years is not bad going in the networking world, especially for something that spent most of its life quietly carrying huge amounts of traffic without drama.

Support officially runs until the end of next year, although personally I think boxes like this deserve a little longer.

Eventually it was replaced by the Cisco ASR 1001-HX and later the Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series, but the ASR1001-X still has plenty of life left in it for the right application.
With the correct licensing, this little box can push up to 20G throughput — which is still more than enough for many environments today.

And here’s the interesting part:
On the refurbished market, these now cost a fraction of their replacements. Even compared to my refurbished pricing on newer platforms, you’re looking at roughly a tenth of the cost… and compared to new pricing, multiply that difference again.
If you need a reliable, high-performance edge router for the next couple of years without spending a fortune, this is still one of the best-value platforms out there.

Good little box, this one.

24/07/2026

Does anybody recognise this? It’s a Nortel Networks Meridian — and I’ll admit, I had to look it up myself. Turns out it’s a PBX telephone switch first introduced back in the 1970s, and incredibly, it was still being sold well into the 2000s.

At its peak, Nortel had around 43 million users on Meridian systems. After Nortel filed for bankruptcy, Avaya picked up the pieces and made a success of it — largely by replacing Meridians with their own IP Office, which competed directly with Cisco’s MCS (Media Convergence Server)… basically, telephony software running on a server.

Not bad for a beige box with more staying power than most celebrity careers.

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45 Paris Hall Farm, Hastingwood Road
Harlow
CM179JU

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Monday 8am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 8am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 8am - 5:30pm
Thursday 8am - 5:30pm
Friday 8am - 5:30pm

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