More e-cycling stats to digest: Less about green, more about secure

There's a new report out about trends in IT asset disposition (aka e-cycling, refurbishment and other related topics). The study, conducted by Converge and Osterman Research, found that smaller and midsize companies are greatly increasing their programs related to aging computer hardware that is being take out of service.

According to the 2010 Converge ITAD Trends study, approximately 84 percent of all the respondents say they have some sort of program in place to deal with end-of-life IT assets. That's up 17 percent from the previous year's survey. They are less concerned about where these things wind up in the waste stream and more concerned about how any confidential data is wiped off them before they go off to their destruction or refurbishment. Says one of the Converge analysts who handled the survey project, Chris Adam: "Environmental concerns tend to grab the headlines, but the prospect of a data breach from discarded equipment is clearly the main issue keeping them up at night. We know that sustainability is a very real concern among business leaders, but we also know that data security represents more risk and is a tougher challenge in larger, more geographically diverse organizations."

Two other stats to leave you with here: Approximately one-quarter of the respondents still put old hardware and materials into storage until they can figure out how to get rid of them. Another 13 percent are still chucking old hardware into their company's dumpster.