– Natalie Lehrer, a senior contributor for CloudWedge, says:
As servers become more efficient, it only makes sense to do away with the old and bring in the new. The big question that many data center administrators ask is what they can do with their excess equipment? Inside data centers, storage space comes at a premium therefore most administrators will try to off load the equipment in the manner that makes the most sense. While your organization could have rules that dictate when, what, where and how you can offload data center equipment, it is important to note all of the options at your disposal.
Donating Your Data Center Equipment
Schools, churches and charities all freely accept gently used datacenter equipment. As data centers become a fixture in our lives, educational coursework will become available in which students can learn the ins and outs of data center management. Schools typically have tight budgets so if your equipment can still be used; donating it to a worthy organization is a great way to do good deeds within your community while your organization receives a tax write off at the end of the year.
Recycling your Data Center Equipment
Did you know that technology recycling companies will sometimes come to your office and take your old data center equipment away on a truck for no charge? Albeit rare, companies will foot all the leg work as long as you are willing to freely give away the equipment. Other technology recycling companies may actually require that you pay them for their services. It is important to do your homework and select the right recycler for your needs.
Selling or Auctioning your Data Center Equipment
If your equipment still has value, why not get the most money you can for the item? eBay, Amazon and Craigslist are great places to start selling your used data center equipment. Listing the equipment on these sites will allow you to quickly flip any data center equipment you have however the caveat is that you will likely need to pack, ship and engage in customer service with the buyer.
Removing Data
Before you sell any equipment, make sure that you remove the hard drive and destroy the data on the device in order to prevent your company’s data from leaking through. Sometimes it is not enough to do a single format on a disk. Freeware hard disk destruction utilities can be downloaded that will over write the data on your drive several times. These freeware versions often utilize the standard U.S. Department of Defense hard drive overwriting methodology which is supposed to destroy all data remnants. Other experts suggest sending the drives to the shredder just for good measure. No matter what your plan of action is, it is important to keep your company’s data out of the reach of those who wish to do harm to your organization.
Author Bio
Natalie Lehrer is a senior contributor for CloudWedge. In her spare time, Natalie enjoys exploring all things cloud and is a music enthusiast. Follow Natalie’s daily posts on Google Plus, Twitter: @Cloudwedge, or on Facebook.
