Nauman Haque is a research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, a research and professional services firm focused on midsized companies. Haque is an expert in the application of IT business strategy, specifically corporate Web design best practices.

If you're looking to replace some of your organization's old PCs this year, you're not alone. For many companies, the PC replacement cycle has come full circle; 2004 is the year for new machines.



The PC Replacement Cycle Hits Again

Truth be told, the surge in computer spending is actually a year late. Given the average PC replacement cycle of three years at most organizations, the wave of businesses that purchased PCs in 1999 or 2000 should have been looking to upgrade their old machines last year. However, weaker market conditions in 2003 extended this cycle for many organizations.

Pent-up demand, renewed optimism in IT spending, and the need to run increasingly complex applications means that 2004 will be the year that the PC replacement cycle actually peaks. Indeed, a recent ITtoolbox survey found that 72% of companies will be replacing PCs this year. Gartner Group expects worldwide PC sales to grow to 187 million units this year, up almost 14% over 2003 sales.



What To Do With The Old Ones?

With so many new PCs being purchased, the question remains, what to do with the old ones? This is a critical decision and involves costs that are often overlooked by many IT professionals. A Gartner Group study indicates that the cost of getting rid of a PC can range anywhere from $85 to $136. These costs include disconnecting PCs from networks, sanitizing hard drives, testing equipment prior to disposal, filing administrative paperwork, and properly disposing of toxic materials found in computer hardware.



Hard Drive Sanitation

Sanitizing old hard drives is vital to ensure that customer privacy is protected and to prevent possible litigation resulting from compromised data. Advanced forms of data recovery mean that simply formatting a drive or deleting files is not enough, as this only erases file addresses on the drive and not the data itself.

As an example, two MIT graduate students, Simson Garfinkel and Abhi Shelat, made headlines in 2003 when they demonstrated the risks of unsanitized hard drives. The pair examined 158 used hard drives purchased from second-hand computer stores and via eBay. Of the 129 drives that were still operational, only 12 had been properly sanitized; 49 contained "significant personal information," including 5,000 credit card numbers, medical reports, sensitive corporate communications, and even bank account numbers from a drive used in an old ATM machine.

While the failsafe precaution would be to destroy the hard drives of old computers, this is also unnecessarily wasteful. Alternatively, companies can either overwrite every data segment on the drive with random junk data or have the drive professionally cleaned. Free and licensed sanitization tools can help with this.



Environmental Best Practices

You might not think of your IT storeroom as a toxic waste dump, but all those old monitors, outdated CPUs, and dusty peripherals contain harmful substances. In addition to other hazardous materials, CRT monitors contain several pounds of lead; motherboards and connectors contain beryllium; flat panel displays and switches use mercury; casing materials use PVC plastics and brominated flame retardants; and SMD chip resistors, infrared detectors, and semiconductors contain cadmium.

According to the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling, almost 300,000 tons of such computer equipment becomes waste every year, 50% of which ends up in landfill sites. This is not only environmentally damaging and wasteful; it can also lead to regulatory fines, bad publicity, and legal action against your company.

Polluters beware. In the United States, many new electronic waste bills are currently working their way through state legislatures. These are laws with teeth, as serial numbers and asset tags make it easy for regulatory bodies to trace equipment found in fields and dumpsters. In addition, many nongovernmental and consumer organizations are targeting negligent companies with public campaigns that highlight environmental and social failures.

To help mitigate these threats, companies need to create asset disposal policies that are environmentally conscious and legally compliant. These policies should include provisions for tracking and auditing equipment from its purchase to its ultimate disposal. Paid recycling services should also be scrutinized, as some low-cost bidders actually work through shady brokers to ship old equipment to dumps in developing countries or to other illegal waste sites.



Give A Little

Instead of junking old equipment, consider other options. Once hard drives have been sanitized, consider giving old PCs to employees, donating them to charities, or participating in vendor-sponsored programs. This gives you an opportunity to improve your company's goodwill.

The reasons for replacing old PCs are obvious. Modern equipment lets companies run new applications, improves user productivity, and reduces service costs. Making this business case is relatively straightforward. Trying to convince decision-makers that they also need to spend money to get rid of old PCs is more difficult. Failing to do this, however, can be an expensive and environmentally damaging mistake.

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