10 Things You Need To Know About ITAD

IT asset disposition, or ITAD, may not be the easiest industry terminology to say five times fast. But anyone involved in the practice of ITAD knows the importance of responsible disposition for IT hardware.

They also know how much value (aka money!) can be returned to companies through smart disposition. Here are ten fast facts about ITAD to get you on your way:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Companies that update their data center hardware regularly enjoy lower operating costs than those that hold on to their equipment until the final gasp. Make disposing wisely of your retiring IT assets a key aspect of your refresh cycles.
            2. The increased migration of data, out of the data center and into the cloud, is sharply driving the rate at which companies are disposing of owned IT hardware.
            3. Not data wiping your hardware properly puts you at risk of data breaches, and significant liability. According to a study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, for those companies experiencing mega breaches of more than 1 million records, malicious activity was at play in more than 90 percent of cases in the past two years. Beware bad actors!

         
         
         

         1. When replacing storage capacity, consider factory recertified drives. FRDs have been wiped, tested, and recertified by OEM-licensed specialists. And because of the extra scrutiny these drives undergo, factory recertified drives are proven to perform to a higher standard than new drives. And they cost less than new!
         2. When researching vendors, look for ITAD companies certified by ADISA, a rigorous accreditation for data sanitization.
         3. Don’t be taken in by marketing claims about the importance of DOD compliance. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for computer media sanitization, known as NIST SP 800-88, are widely considered to be the go-to industry standard for data erasure.
         4. Look out for certification by R2 among ITAD vendors. R2 is an industry-leading certification for responsible recyclers of electronic equipment.
         5. The e-Stewards standard, independently audited by trained auditors, is another top accreditation. e-Stewards requires electronics recyclers not only securely wipe data from retiring assets, but responsibly oversee the management of toxic e-waste downstream from their facilities.
         6. The continued development of open hardware standards in the data center, as championed by the Open Compute Project among others, is helping to support global standards for IT asset disposition and drive the remarketing of disposed assets.
         7. Ongoing advances in hard disk technology will ensure HDD disposal and remarketing remain a key element of IT asset disposition plans in the coming years. Remember hard disk drives contain valuable rare earth elements that have significant resale value at scale.

         
         
         
         ITAD is growing fast. According to Transparency Market Research, the global IT asset disposition market is projected to double in size in the decade up to 2024. Working with a qualified ITAD partner, IT asset managers can identify opportunities for additional value recovery, from software harvesting, warranty management on OEM equipment, and smart return management logistics.

         For more resources on IT asset disposition, explore our handy ITAD glossary or read our predictions for the coming year in IT asset disposition.

         Remember, think green and be green for an ITAD-tastic year!

         ITAD is growing fast. According to Transparency Market Research, the global IT asset disposition market is projected to double in size in the decade up to 2024.