Capterra Glossary
IT Asset Disposition (ITAD)
IT asset disposition (ITAD) refers to the practice of appropriately disposing and decommissioning IT assets, such as computer hardware and electronic devices. IT organizations may practice IT asset disposition on their own or hire a specialized vendor to handle this process. ITAD typically involves the reusing, recycling, repurposing, repairing, or disposing of unwanted IT equipment in a way that is both environmentally responsible and safe. ITAD aims to secure data by ensuring that storage devices are securely wiped before being disposed of. ITAD also focuses on recycling, repairing, and reusing devices and hardware. ITAD vendors typically deal with various types of computer devices, including but not limited to desktops, laptops, servers, tablets, phone, RAM storage devices, video cards, and motherboards.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About IT Asset Disposition (ITAD)
IT asset disposition (ITAD) is an important concept for small and midsize businesses that operate in the tech industry to grasp, due to the implications it can have on company data security. If hard drives are not properly wiped and disposed of, sensitive company information could fall into the hands of unauthorized users, resulting in an organization-wide data breach. Typically, businesses partner with ITAD vendors that electronically degauss (a data erasure method that removes the magnetic field of a disk of hard drive using a special device) any removable storage devices they receive to ensure total data deletion.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy