Have you considered server recycling for your IT Department’s Asset Disposal plan?
It is becoming increasingly essential that organizations work towards reducing sensitive data leaks. Reducing your business’ security weak points should be one of your top priorities, and helping out the environment can be a nice side-effect.
While there are many options out there that you can implement to ensure you’re building a safer, greener business, server recycling is an essential service that you can utilize in your attempts at overhauling your IT Department.
Many organizations have servers that they are no longer using and servers in the process of depreciation. Unfortunately, electronic waste poses a potential environmental threat, and its disposal needs to be undertaken with care and intention.
Server Recycling For Eco-friendly Disposal and Asset Management
A few of the servers that your organization may include:
- A Mail Server
- Proxy Server
- Server Platforms
- Web Server
- Application Server
- Real-Time Communication Server
- FTP Server
- and a Collaboration Server.
Servers, like other forms of electronic waste, are made up of components that contain toxic materials. Toxic materials in servers include beryllium, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury, brominated flame retardant, and more. Even safer metals like iron and copper can poison the groundwater around your local garbage dump.
Disposing of this waste without care is dangerous for the environment, which is why laws are requiring adequate recycling of servers.
Creating or Updating Your IT Asset Disposal Procedure
Whether you undertake the recycling of your old servers yourself or hire a professional business, your organization is legally responsible for the proper disposal. Keep in mind that all of your IT Department’s assets are under your management. Therefore you must determine an appropriate means for recycling servers and other forms of electronic waste.
Due to the threat of data breaches, any old, unused servers must be recycled as soon as possible.
Hackers are capable of breaking through firewalls and taking any information stored on the server. That puts your clients, employees, and vendors at risk. If you have remote employees using your servers, this becomes an even more significant concern, as there will be many different people in different locations with access to confidential information.
Your Data Security Is Most At Risk During Disposal
Simply throwing these old servers away creates an easy way for hackers to access any information on them. Destroying and recycling hard drives is critical to removing any risk involved. Obtaining Certificates of Destruction (CoD) from a recycling center can help protect against fraudulent legal claims as well.
How Server Recycling Works
When a server is recycled, the various pieces of the hardware are broken down. Some businesses only break down unusable equipment and sell off the remainder. That can be explicitly dangerous as recovered drives can be accessed and partial data recovered.
Check with your commercial recycling provider to make sure they destroy any hardware that can store data completely, as not all electronic recyclers follow this procedure.
The Three Major Steps
There are three parts involved in recycling old servers.
- Waste removal and collection.
- The recycling occurs, where various components are taken apart and separated.
- Destruction of data and the shredding of the hard drives.
The larger your business and servers, the longer IT asset management takes, and the more likely you’ll need an Asset Disposal contract.
Server recycling contracts
With a server recycling contract, you outsource your electronic waste recycling to a certified disposal company that knows how to recycle your old servers adequately. By hiring an expert, you will gain peace of mind, knowing that your servers will be secured appropriately and kept safe from hackers, as well as disposed of in a healthy and green way.
Professional server recyclers will properly wipe your servers’ storage and memory, as well as recycle all components. With this service, you won’t have to think twice about securing your servers after being retired.
Bringing In The Right Recycling Company
Hire a disposal company that is well-versed in all Environmental Protection Agency standards, has a great deal of experience, and that you can trust to get the job done right. With a contract, your costs should be all-inclusive, covering the three portions of server recycling.
You’ll also know that anytime you have old servers that need recycling, all you have to do is give your disposal company a call. Your organization uses servers and will need server recycling services at times. Hiring a disposal service to meet these needs will provide you with peace of mind, keeping your data and the environment safe.