Eight key signs you need a secure IT asset disposition strategy

We depend on our digital devices, but every time we upgrade to the latest and greatest, it means getting rid of the old stuff. That’s why so many IT assets – servers, hard drives and other data-bearing devices – are piling up in offices and making their way into landfills.

Available through Kinetic GPO, Iron Mountain offers a variety of services to protect customer information across every phase of the information lifecycle. Iron Mountain helps organizations, large and small, deal with their retired IT assets in a secure and environmentally responsible way, through IT Asset Disposition – ITAD. Is it time you implemented an ITAD program for your organization?

Here are eight reasons that might be the case:

1. You’re committed to being data driven. We live in a data-driven world. And even with the pandemic-related disruptions and lingering IT supply chain issues, overall spending on new technology remains very much on the upswing – including both cloud services and on premises solutions. This means you will be acquiring and retiring a lot of IT assets for the foreseeable future. Understanding the amount of IT assets and the resources required, will determine whether you can support ITAD on your own or whether it makes sense to rely on a third-party provider of ITAD services.
2. You’re committed to being IT/data-driven and environmentally responsible. If your entity is serious about IT and also about sustainability initiatives, there is no question you need a responsible approach to ITAD – including remarketing and recycling of your retired IT assets.
3. You want to lower your total cost of ownership (TCO). Making sure your entity is lowering its TCO is an important aspect of managing your IT assets; this boils down to reviewing your current and future system requirements and optimizing your schedule of acquiring and retiring your IT assets. The mistake many organizations make is to hold on to hardware for too long in the hopes of saving money. However, a regular refresh schedule backed by ITAD will enable you to retire assets before the costs of supporting them increase significantly while also recouping more residual value.
4. You tried to dispose of your old IT assets – and failed. It happens all the time and it’s the single biggest indicator that you need a professionally provided ITAD service. Retiring IT assets in a compliant manner, requires expertise. However, many make the mistake of trying to attempt this task on their own, exposing their company to legal and compliance issues over data security concerns.
5. The prospect of losing customer data keeps you up at night. Simply reformatting a disk drive doesn’t actually erase the files stored on a drive, only the tables pointing to the files. Completely eradicating data requires specialized equipment and/or software to ensure that the data on them never falls into the wrong hands.
6. You require witnessed destruction directly on-premises. On-site, witnessed destruction removes all data security risks associated with transporting data bearing devices. As data breaches become more common, on-site data destruction is becoming a more frequent requirement and a definite sign that you need an ITAD provider.
7. You struggle to track your IT assets. In a business or legal situation, whenever anything of value is lost or damaged, establishing “chain of custody” (information showing who touched the item, when and where) becomes essential. An inability to maintain chain of custody documentation consistently and accurately is a clear sign that you need ITAD delivered by a responsible provider.
8. You currently rely on a “free” ITAD service. It’s not unusual to encounter ITAD vendors that offer their services for free or at very little cost. Unfortunately, this likely means that the provider of the service could put your business at the risk of fines with legal/compliance exposure.

About Iron Mountain, Kinetic GPO

The Iron Mountain and Kinetic GPO Master Agreement provides your organization the ability to procure services at discounted prices. This streamlined acquisition process helps organizations save a significant amount of time and money typically allocated to contract production and negotiations.

Fair, Open, and Transparent

Iron Mountain and all other contracts that Kinetic GPO offers, were competitively solicited, and awarded based on best value. We utilize the best practices and procedures to offer members competitive and user-friendly contracts spanning a wide array of categories.

Maintaining compliance is our utmost priority, and we provide members with contracts that are compliant with international and regional trade agreements. Members have direct access to our trusted awarded suppliers enabling open and honest conversations to ensure they get what they need, when they need it, through the awarded contract.

Kinetic GPO diligently oversees contracts for the entire duration, closely monitoring key performance indicators and offering continuous support to suppliers to ensure strict adherence to the contract terms and conditions. All Kinetic GPO contracts are awarded using a competitive solicitation process consistent with Chapter 5 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) and other international trade agreements, including the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreements (CETA), as well as the Broader Public Sector (BPS) Procurement Directive, the New West Partnership Agreement (NWPTA), the Atlantic Trade and Procurement Partnership (ATPP), and other relevant trade legislation.

Save Time, Save Money

For more information on becoming a Kinetic GPO member or to learn more about one of our contracts, please reach out to membership@kineticgpo.ca. There is no cost to become a member, no volume commitments and membership is not exclusive.