Delegates were wowed at a recent seminar where Xperien presented a case study showing how a local healthcare provider saved more than 75% by simply choosing an innovative alternative solution.
Instead of spending more than R7-million on brand new laptops, they managed to acquire 556 certified refurbished (CRS) Dell E6430 i5 laptops for a quarter of the price. As a deposit for a Continuous IT Lifecycle Solution, Xperien also bought back old laptops that were supplied 3 years earlier for 15% residual value.
Xperien illustrated how companies can now use the residual value of the old devices towards the new budget, offsetting the costs of data sanitisation. Together with one of its partners Merchant West, Xperien was able to share some case studies where clients were using CRS computers in their IT infrastructure coupled with innovative finance solutions.
The event was held in conjunction with Merchant West, an independent financial services company offering specialist business finance and advisory services, and Blancco Technology Group, a global leader in data erasure and diagnostics.
In his enlightening presentation, Xperien CEO Wale Arewa said corporates must now realise that the 'throw away' culture of the 80s is long gone. "According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the circular economy is a trillion dollar opportunity. South Africa’s IT hardware spend is expected to be around R100-billion for 2019 of which only 0.5% (R500-million) will be on refurbished systems."
He then pointed to a call centre in Sandton that has just invested in 3000 refurbished PCs. "Large corporates need to understand that 65% of the workforce are lower power users and don't require high end machines. They're wasting unnecessary capital on technology that's not required."
Dr Peter Tobin, a full-time consultant with a particular interest in data privacy and protection, IT governance and compliance, was the host and made sure everyone was up-to-date with the latest data protection laws.
He presented an update on the progress made towards the full implementation of the POPI Act, in particular the POPI Regulations 2018 which were published in the Government Gazette in December 2018.
"These regulations demonstrate the determination of the Information Regulator South Africa (IRSA) to keep the POPI Act in the public eye. This growing focus on the POPI Act and associated PAIA legislation was highlighted at the recent IRSA co-hosted event, the International Conference of Information Commissioners 2019," says Dr Tobin.
"We aim to keep Xperien's clients up-to-date on developments in local and global data privacy developments and the Xperien Open Day provided just such an opportunity," he adds.
Blancco Central Europe GmbH Sales Manager Jocelyn Miley presented on a recently published research study, ‘The High Cost of Cluttered Data Centres,' which included responses from 600 data centre experts in APAC, Europe and North America. The report laid out how retained hardware led to increased storage costs and neglected opportunities to recapture funds.
"Our latest Blancco survey suggests that too many data centre operators waste money and risk data breaches by failing to properly dispose of storage hardware,” Miley said. "Data centres stockpile old hardware wherever they have some free space, and that’s driving up costs.”
“The survey found that on average, organisations stored around 33% of their data onsite and nearly 75% of businesses with onsite data centres store their end-of-life assets onsite, putting them at risk of security and compliance violations,” she continued.
If organisations want to cut costs and be more efficient, why are they keeping so much unusable hardware around? Drives, servers and other IT assets could even be reused or resold once erased. One problem is that the processes used are archaic and inefficient, and that even when these are carried out, it’s unclear that the drives are completely wiped of any sensitive data.
Xperien's Bridgette Vermaak says the idea of the event started with the request from several clients to see our new premises and the refurb processing as it was hard to visualise without seeing. "During our initial engagement with clients, it is assumed that since we deal with end-of-life equipment our operations run from a scrap yard."
"It came as a pleasant surprise to the clients to learn that our operations are well-structured and operate from an office park with a well-structured and secured warehouse. I wanted to get everyone together in one seating to view the ITAD and refurb process. It is important to understand what happens to your used equipment once it has been collected both for compliance and auditing requirements," she concluded.
