How The Shift to the Cloud has Fueled IT Asset Disposal

How times change…
When the technology rolled into town, not many businesses were willing to entrust their sensitive data to another party. As the years wore on, however, more and more businesses have found themselves relying on the cloud for their various needs.

Those that haven’t joined the bandwagon are planning to do so in the not too distant future. And there will be no shortage of suitors as the number of vendors offering cloud services is on the rise too.

There is one perturbing question that relevant authorities tasked with the decision of when and how to move to the cloud in every company often come face to face with what will become of the legacy hardware?

Many companies have a long-term investment when it comes to their hardware, and it is not lost on them that their assets hold value. But as the race to migrate to the cloud heats up, IT asset disposal – the last step of the process – can (and does) get overlooked. It only comes back to haunt when the retired excess inventory has piled up, and particularly those assets that hold sensitive information.

Cloud Migration Trends

The top reason for migrating to the cloud, according to business executives, is cost-effectiveness. This is according to recent figures by international audit and research firm, KPMG. They also cited the need for a more collaborative relationship between employees and customers as well as a more mobile workforce as the drivers.

The benefits of cloud migration are clear to many companies, but challenges still abound. Executives are worried, first and foremost, about data loss and privacy risk. The second biggest concern is the risk of intellectual property theft.

The same KPMG report also noted that while migration to the cloud has its highs and lows, industry growth is prognosticated to continue burgeoning and will have nearly tripled come the year 2020.

IT Asset Disposal Offers Data Protection

As this trend carries on, businesses need to confront the issue of the security of the private and proprietary information that is housed on old systems. The worries about the safety of cloud migration notwithstanding, most organizations fail to mull over what will happen to the hardware until the migration is underway or done and dusted.

We cannot overemphasize the importance of data protection during the cloud migration process.

Businesses should look for a reputable recovery solutions company to sort out the issue of data cleaning for them on those outdated or any unused hardware. And this is even more important if your business has access to personal information or even medical information that is covered under HIPAA.

We reiterate, wiping this information clean prior to doing asset liquidation is imperative. If a hard drive cannot be erased securely, it has to go. Taking chances with proprietary or private information can come back to haunt you big time.

Cloud migration is scalable, and this has enabled many businesses to shift in phases. A progressive migration can mean doing asset disposal in stages. Regardless of where you are in the cloud migration process, it is not too late to secure your information and assets.

And if you cannot afford to gamble with this information, a professional recovery vendor should do it for you.