Your Client’s Hardware Refresh Is Planned. Is the Disposal?
The overlooked piece of the IT hardware refresh process
You’ve helped your client plan the hardware refresh. You’ve identified the equipment that needs to be replaced. You’ve helped select the new technology. You’ve scheduled deployment, migration and testing.
The new equipment is ready to go. But there’s one part of the project that can be easy to overlook:
What happens to the old equipment?
Servers, hard drives, laptops, desktops and other IT equipment don’t stop being your client’s responsibility simply because they’ve been replaced. Data may remain on those devices, and someone still needs to determine how the equipment will be collected, handled, destroyed, recycled or otherwise disposed of.
For IT providers, data centers, technology partners, and other organizations managing IT infrastructure, that creates an important question:
Is equipment disposition part of your client’s IT lifecycle plan—or is it something everyone figures out at the last minute?
A Hardware Refresh Doesn’t End When the New Equipment Arrives
A successful hardware refresh involves much more than purchasing new equipment.
There is planning, budgeting, deployment, configuration, data migration and testing. But once the new systems are operational, the retired equipment still needs a plan. Consider a client replacing 25 workstations, several servers or an entire storage environment.
Where does the old equipment go?
Who is responsible for collecting it?
What happens to the hard drives?
How will sensitive data be handled?
What documentation will the client receive?
Without a defined process, these questions can become an unexpected burden for the IT provider—or worse, an afterthought.
The Data Doesn’t Retire When the Equipment Does
This is especially important during September’s National Insider Threat Awareness Month.
When organizations think about protecting sensitive information, the conversation often focuses on employees, access controls, network security and cybersecurity tools.
Those are important parts of an organization’s security strategy. But protecting sensitive information also means considering what happens to the physical devices that stored it.
A device can leave service without leaving its data behind.
That’s why secure IT asset disposition deserves a place in the overall IT lifecycle.
Five Questions IT Providers Should Ask Before a Hardware Refresh
1. What Equipment Is Actually Being Retired?
Before equipment leaves the client’s facility, establish what is being replaced.
Servers? Workstations? Laptops? Hard drives? Network equipment? Backup media?
An accurate inventory helps everyone understand the scope of the project—and ensures data-bearing equipment isn’t overlooked.
2. What Happens to the Data?
Determine how information stored on retired equipment will be handled. Depending on the equipment, its intended disposition and organizational requirements, secure data erasure or physical destruction may be appropriate.
The important thing is to make the decision before the equipment is sitting in a storage room, loading area or back of a vehicle.
3. Who Is Handling the Equipment?
Once retired equipment leaves the client’s controlled environment, physical handling becomes part of the equation.
Who is picking it up?
How will it be transported?
Where will it go?
A defined process and documented chain of custody can help maintain accountability from collection through final disposition.
4. How Will the Process Be Documented?
Your client may eventually need to answer a simple question: What happened to our old equipment and the data it contained?
A documented disposition process provides a record of what was handled and how. When physical destruction is performed, documentation such as a Certificate of Destruction can provide additional evidence that the destruction process was completed.
For an IT provider, this documentation can also become part of the client’s project records.
5. Does Your Team Need to Handle It Yourself?
This may be the most important question of all. Your IT team is responsible for managing technology. That doesn’t necessarily mean your technicians need to spend their time loading retired equipment, transporting it, coordinating destruction, sorting electronics or managing downstream recycling.
A specialized IT asset disposition partner can handle that portion of the lifecycle while your team stays focused on the technology and services your clients depend on.
Turn Equipment Disposal Into Part of the Plan
The easiest time to decide what happens to retired equipment is before the hardware refresh begins. Instead of waiting until new equipment is installed, build disposition into the project plan from the start.
For example:
PLAN
Identify equipment being replaced and determine how it will be handled.
DEPLOY
Install and configure the new technology.
DECOMMISSION
Remove retired equipment and identify data-bearing devices.
SECURE
Erase or physically destroy data as appropriate.
DISPOSITION
Recycle, reuse or otherwise process equipment through appropriate channels.
DOCUMENT
Maintain records of the equipment and its final disposition. This approach turns equipment disposal from an unexpected cleanup task into a defined part of the client’s IT lifecycle.
A Better Client Experience
For IT providers, there is another reason to think about equipment disposition before the refresh begins: your client experience.
Clients don’t necessarily want to be left with a pile of retired IT equipment after a technology project.
They want to know:
- What happens to the old equipment?
- Is our data secure?
- Who is handling it?
- Can we document what happened?
- Is anything being recycled or reused responsibly?
Having a reliable disposition process gives your team an answer before those questions become a problem. It can also help create a more complete technology lifecycle service—one that addresses not only what your client is getting, but also what is being replaced.
You Manage the Technology. We Can Help With What Comes Next.
IT teams play an important role in helping organizations plan, deploy and manage their technology. But you don’t have to manage every physical aspect of the equipment lifecycle yourself.
Rover Records Management helps IT providers, data centers and other organizations securely manage retired IT equipment through hard drive destruction, IT asset disposition and responsible electronics recycling.
Whether you’re planning a client hardware refresh or already have a collection of retired equipment waiting to be handled, Rover can help provide a secure, documented path forward.
Your client’s hardware refresh may be planned. Make sure the disposal is, too.
Ready to build equipment disposition into your next client refresh?
Contact Rover Records Management to discuss secure IT asset disposition and hard drive destruction for your client’s retired equipment.
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FAQs
Retired IT equipment should be inventoried and handled according to the organization’s data security, compliance and disposition requirements. Depending on the equipment and its condition, devices may be securely erased, physically destroyed, reused, refurbished or recycled.
IT asset disposition (ITAD) helps ensure retired equipment—and the data it may contain—is handled securely and responsibly. Including ITAD in the hardware refresh plan can help reduce security risks, maintain accountability and prevent retired equipment from becoming an afterthought.
Not necessarily. Simply deleting files or formatting a device may not provide the level of data sanitization required for sensitive information. Depending on the device and organizational requirements, secure data erasure or physical destruction of the storage media may be appropriate.
An ITAD plan can include a wide range of equipment, including servers, laptops, desktops, hard drives, solid-state drives, backup media, networking equipment and other electronic devices that may contain or have stored sensitive information.
Responsibility depends on the agreement between the client and its IT provider. An IT provider may manage the process internally or work with a specialized IT asset disposition partner to handle collection, transportation, data destruction, recycling and documentation.
A chain of custody documents the movement and handling of equipment from the point of collection through its final disposition. Maintaining this documentation can help organizations demonstrate accountability for retired equipment and data-bearing devices.
Documentation depends on the services performed and the equipment involved. When physical destruction is performed, organizations may receive documentation such as a Certificate of Destruction identifying that the applicable materials were destroyed.
Yes. Equipment that does not require physical destruction may potentially be reused, refurbished or recycled. However, data-bearing devices should be securely handled before they are reused, recycled or otherwise transferred.
IT asset disposition is best addressed during the planning stage of the hardware refresh. Establishing what equipment is being retired, how data will be handled, who will collect it and how the process will be documented can make the overall project more organized.
Yes. IT providers can work with specialized ITAD and electronics recycling partners to manage retired equipment. Outsourcing these tasks can allow the IT team to focus on deployment, migration and other technical aspects of the hardware refresh while a qualified partner handles physical disposition.
