IT Asset Disposal vs. IT Asset Disposition

Whiteboard Wednesday Episode 13: IT Asset Disposal vs. IT Asset Disposition

Whiteboard Wednesday is me, a whiteboard and learning about all things IT Asset Management (ITAM), every Wednesday!

This week, ITAD – what’s the difference between IT Asset Disposal and IT Asset Disposition?

https://youtu.be/HgyLcyTRH9E

Please like, follow, subscribe to Whiteboard Wednesday updates, reach out on social media and say hello, and let me know what else you want explained on the whiteboard, and we’ll get it done!

• Connect with me
• White Board Wednesday Playlist (All Episodes)
• ITAM Review contact form

IT Asset Disposal vs. IT Asset Disposition

IT Asset Disposal
IT asset disposal is when you want to get rid of an asset at the end of its life. There are two things to think about here. One is that in just about every country in the world, hardware from a company at the end of its life represents e-waste. That means it’s a special class of waste that needs to be treated in a special way, you can’t just put it in the bin, it needs to be treated and separated out and dealt with properly. And the second thing to think about with disposal is the data that’s on that device, we don’t want that leaking out, that needs to be destroyed properly.

IT Asset Disposition 
It asset disposition is close to disposal, but it’s slightly different. Disposition means to change ownership of or to give up ownership. So when we put an asset through a disposition process, it has a lot more options than disposal, we could reuse that device, we could reconfigure it, we could sell it or we could get it re manufactured. Or we could sell the components of that device and so on and so forth lots of different options. And the final last resort of the disposition process is to dispose of it.

Better for the environment, better for your pocket
Disposition is better for the environment, because we are prolonging the useful life of the asset, but it’s also better for your pocket, because the last value squeezed out of the asset before we get rid of it can often pay for the process here of disposing of assets properly. So they offset each other. So disposal is should be seen as a last resort of disposition.