[Sponsored Guest Article]   The lifecycle of IT gear, HPC or otherwise, is generally thought to start the day it is powered up to the day it is powered down for the last time and pulled out of the rack. However, in the immortal words of Prince: there’s something else- the afterlife. Actually, there’s a beforelife too. Lenovo’s global presence in both supply chain and asset recovery maximizes customer value from well before it ships, to well after it’s removed from the rack.  Start at the beginning or even before that.  The management and execution of a global supply chain is one of Lenovo’s core strengths, and has been for years. Supply chains in the tech industry are inherently complex, comprised of intricate webs of over 2000 suppliers. For Lenovo, there is the added layer of stringent security measures for each supplier. All that must happen before the first transistor hits the factory door.