Xperien recently illustrated how companies can now use the residual value of the old devices towards the new budget, offsetting the costs of data sanitisation. Together with one of its partners Merchant West, Xperien was able to share some case studies where clients were using CRS computers in their IT infrastructure coupled with innovative finance solutions.

A local healthcare provider saved more than 75% by simply choosing an innovative alternative solution. Instead of spending more than R7-million on brand new laptops, they managed to acquire 556 certified refurbished (CRS) Dell E6430 i5 laptops for a quarter of the price. Xperien also bought back old laptops that were supplied 3 years earlier for 15% residual value as a deposit for a Continuous IT Lifecycle Solution.

Xperien CEO Wale Arewa says corporates must now realise that the 'throw away' culture of the 80s is long gone. "According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the circular economy is a trillion dollar opportunity. South Africa’s IT hardware spend is expected to be around R100-billion for 2019 of which only 0.5% (R500-million) will be on refurbished systems."

He points to a call centre in Sandton that has just invested in 3000 refurbished PCs. "Large corporates need to understand that 65% of the workforce are lower power users and don't require high end machines. They're wasting unnecessary capital on technology that's not required."

Xperien has also partnered with Blancco to ensure clients completely erase all data from old drives to get the most from their used hardware.

Blancco recently published research study, ‘The High Cost of Cluttered Data Centers,' which included responses from 600 data centre experts in APAC, Europe and North America. The report laid out how retained hardware led to increased storage costs and neglected opportunities to recapture funds.

"Our latest Blancco survey suggests that too many data centre operators waste money and risk data breaches by failing to properly dispose of storage hardware,” says Central Europe GmbH Sales Manager Jocelyn Miley. "Data centres stockpile old hardware wherever they have some free space, and that’s driving up costs.”

“The survey found that on average, organisations stored around 33% of their data onsite and nearly 75% of businesses with onsite data centres store their end-of-life assets onsite, putting them at risk of security and compliance violations,” she concluded.

If organisations want to cut costs and be more efficient, why are they keeping so much unusable hardware around? Drives, servers and other IT assets could even be reused or resold once erased. One problem is that the processes used are archaic and inefficient, and that even when these are carried out, it’s unclear that the drives are completely wiped of any sensitive data.