Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Managing Equipment: The Right Mix: Page 4 of 5

Meta's Schafer points out that disposal considerations transcend the privacy concerns of acts such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley to cover environmental considerations. "The fundamental issue on the environmental side is that there are toxic elements in monitors especially. The legal counsels of large firms are saying, 'As a global company, we don't want 20 years from now for the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to discover our IT assets in the bottom of a toxic dump,'" Schafer relates.

With such considerations in mind, he says, many companies are figuring that the lease option is the safer way to go. But assuming that if the firm doesn't own it, then the firm can't be liable for its disposal might be a mistake.

"Leasing doesn't mean you don't have to do due diligence about disposal," Schafer contends. "Many lessors are mom-and-pop shops, so I lease X number of servers or PCs and in three or four years wash my hands. Ten years from now, in a toxic dump, the EPA tracks them down and Mom and Pop have gone out of business. The rest will be history," Schafer says, suggesting that the firm ultimately could be liable.

Relational's Ross says disposal is just another cost on which IT executives are being challenged to make every dollar count. "You can't stick [IT assets] in a closet or throw them in a dumpster," he says. In addition to other IT services, Relational provides clients with a "Death Certificate" for their IT assets, assuring a firm that its equipment, and the information stored on it, is gone - in an environmentally friendly way - for good.

Also gone for good are the high-flying days of the late '90s when scrutinizing costs was the last thing on anyone's mind. With the millions of dollars financial institutions spend on IT today, saving 5 percent to 10 percent by managing and structuring technology deals better is no small matter. "That's why it's getting a higher focus at this point than in the past," says UMB's Matteoni.