Understanding IT Asset Dispostion

Beginning in the 1980s, computers have become a necessity not only in the business community but also in the home. In the late 1990s businesses and consumers started to consider what happened to this equipment after its useful life. Today, computers and equipment are changing so fast that they are considered obsolete after just a few years of use. Some have an even shorter life span. The question of what to do with all of this equipment is now being answered by various IT asset disposition (ITAD) services. ITAD companies such as Secure e-Cycle work to refurbish and resell items, or collect and separate the obsolete equipment for scrap value and are a part of a growing and necessary industry.

Today we have come a long way in the lifecycle management of these devices. This term ITAD, however, has led to confusion as many haven’t fully grasped the definition.

In short, the term is defined as the business of safe and responsible management of retired electronic equipment. Generally, these services will include the following:

• Asset tracking – Accounting for every device as it moves through the disposition process.
• Legal compliance – Ensuring compliance to dispose of equipment legally and securely.
• Software harvesting – Removing software and licensing from retired devices for use in working equipment.
• Data destruction – Removal of all data through wiping, purging or shredding of storage media.
• Refurbishment/resale – Reselling equipment, extending the life of each device.
• Responsible recycling – Shredding of non-resalable electronics, in an audited and certified facility, to produce raw materials that can later be used to make new products.

There are many proven benefits from contracting with an ITAD company. Secure e-Cycle is one of the few companies that has a comprehensive electronic recycling and data destruction service. To ensure that stored data is completely eliminated, Secure e-Cycle employs two Department of Defense approved solutions. We focus on the two proven methods to make sure your data is safe: data sanitization and physical destruction.

During data sanitization, our certified technicians use a Department of Defense 5220-20M disk wiping process which overwrites 100% of the information contained on the disk. The device can then be preserving the functional and remarketing value of the asset.

In addition to data sanitization, Secure e-Cycle uses two types of physical destruction methods for securing data. Physical destruction involves using a portable mechanical Hard Drive Crusher for small projects or we schedule our truck to shred the hard drives on-site. This process can be done either on site or at our Kansas City, Kansas facility. During physical destruction, our Department of Defense approved crusher breaks the platters containing any data you might have. Once the data is unreadable, all electronics are responsibly recycled. The truck will shred the hard drive into very small pieces eliminating retrieval of any data.

In short, Secure e-Cycle makes the seemingly overwhelming task of handling outdated computers and electronics seem easy. Secure e-Cycle is an ITAD company you can trust to handle your secure information with great care and responsibility.