Are you unsure whether investing in an ITAD program is the right move for your company? Or you’re not sure about what ITAD involves or the benefits?
Failing to act appropriately when your IT assets reach their end of life could have huge repercussions, including financially.
At Ingram Micro Lifecycle, we have over 20 years of experience providing ITAD services to enterprises across the globe. We offer a complete IT Asset Disposition solution specializing in secure chain-of-custody logistics, data destruction, retired asset reuse and remarketing, and responsible recycling.
Below, we explain what ITAD involves and five key reasons why an ITAD program is essential to your business.
What is ITAD?
IT Asset Disposition, or ITAD, is the secure and responsible handling and decommissioning of unwanted, excess, or obsolete IT equipment. It can include:
- Desktop PCs
- Laptops
- Tablets
- Smartphones
- Servers
- Networking equipment
- Other electronic devices
An ITAD partner will collect your IT assets and remove your company data. They will use software to overwrite the data or physically destroy the hard drives.
After sanitizing the data, the equipment with the remaining value is ready for redeployment. This can be within your organization for reuse or sold on the secondary market. This allows the company to recover the residual value.
The ITAD processor will recycle non-functional and beyond-repair systems.
Why is an ITAD program important?
An ITAD program protects organizations from liability by using secure and compliant services to manage the end-of-life of their IT assets.
Such programs are important for five main reasons.
1. Protects from data breaches
Every year, thousands of data breaches occur and expose millions of data records. In fact, in 2022, data breaches cost an organization an average of $4.35M in hard and soft costs.
Many of these instances are due to stolen information, ransomware, and phishing schemes. You must sanitize confidential data on every disposed piece of IT equipment. This is the only way to mitigate the associated risks.
An ITAD program helps to protect against the loss or theft of sensitive data. Disposing of IT assets properly involves erasing or destroying all sensitive data. This stops confidential information from falling into the wrong hands.
Failing to protect your assets from data breaches could lead to severe fines, loss of proprietary information, and reputational damage.
2. Promotes environmental sustainability
Now, organizations focus more on reducing the environmental impact of their end-of-use devices. You can support these initiatives through an intentional approach to asset disposition.
By implementing a data sanitization policy and focusing on steering functional assets towards reuse instead of recycling, organizations can protect their company data while making more sustainable decisions.
For equipment that cannot be reused, an e-Stewards certified ITAD program will ensure that all e-waste is responsibly recycled to meet core objectives. These include:
- data security
- health and worker safety
- no exporting
- no prison labor
- no dumping or incineration
Meeting this high standard makes your ITAD program an integral part of your CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental Social Governance) programs.
3. Maximizes recovery value
Use your ITAD program to recover the greatest value from your company’s end-of-use products.
An ITAD partner can sell unwanted equipment that still has value. They will achieve the highest return on assets through secondary markets, such as B2C, B2B, liquidations, and auctions.
Through this, businesses can recover some of the starting costs of their investment while enabling a circular economy by extending the life of the device.
Any recovered value could be used to offset new equipment purchases or invest back into other IT/company developments.
4. Ensures regulatory compliance
All businesses face much legislation about data recorded on corporate systems.
Failure to meet the standards set in the ever-expanding list of regulations can have multiple consequences, and fines may be the least serious.
International regulations exist on top of national data privacy and disposal laws that your company might be subject to.
Use an ITAD provider that demonstrates certificates of recycling, data erasure, destruction, and disposal. These provide liability indemnification and peace of mind while ensuring you follow regulations.
5. Provides detailed asset tracking
Secure reporting of end-of-life assets is critical to ensure accountability.
An ITAD program enables organizations to track assets throughout the disposition process. It provides an auditable trail and data destruction certificates for every asset.
Protect your company today through ITAD
It is possible to dispose of your IT assets yourself. Adhering to data security, environmental responsibility, and compliance are vital. An ITAD partner reduces the pressure on businesses.
If your business wants to dispose of IT assets, it’s important to choose a method that is secure, compliant, and sustainable.
By working with a reputable, certified ITAD provider like Ingram Micro Lifecycle, you can be sure that you’re in safe hands. Your data is protected, you’re compliant with regulations, and you’re doing your part to protect the environment.
Interested in learning more about ITAD?
Learn more about IT Asset Disposition by reading our additional materials:
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