Plan for upgrades and retirement
Upgrading involves reusing hardware with new software or new versions of older software. In most cases, you should consider the following factors:
- You will need facilities to store systems that are undergoing refurbishment and a place to store them until you return them to the user’s workspace.
- You can upgrade software in place at a user’s workstation. However, upgrading an application to a new version requires considerable planning and testing compared with managing an update.
- Some organizations have procedures on how to refurbish used equipment and how to test stock items before deployment or after users return them. Additionally, new employees might need fully equipped computers to perform their duties.
Retirement
The retirement phase is an issue that every organization must eventually face. This phase focuses on successfully removing a system from production when it is no longer useful. As you retire legacy systems and replace them with new systems, you must efficiently complete this effort without interrupting daily organizational business needs or end-users' work. Eventually, all software systems become obsolete or other systems supersede them.
Generally, hardware systems go through upgrades, but sometimes you no longer require them and should remove them. Other factors that you must consider when planning the retirement phase include:
- Computer pickup should be performed in a way that causes the least interruption to users. Typically, you can do this during non-business hours by going to each department or room to retrieve computers. Usually, computer pickup happens at the same time that new systems are distributed.
- Like your refurbishing efforts, you should also prepare computers for reselling. If systems will go to an outside entity, you should ensure that sensitive information stored on hard drives and other magnetic media does not travel outside your organization. As part of the retirement process, you should typically remove the information that is stored on drives. You can use numerous software tools to do this, and there are machines that can erase drives in bulk, even if the drives are not operational.
- Your organization might require administrative processing, which refers to the paperwork necessary to inventory and account for all computer equipment removals and sales. You typically can accomplish this with an existing inventory system.
- You might need to perform packing and shipping, and you may need a loading-dock area for pickups.
- You must consider the residual, or resale value of equipment for accounting purposes. For example, laptops are generally assigned a higher price than desktops. Some organizations give old equipment to charity and use such donations as part of their overall tax accommodation.
BYOD and Unenrollment
In BYOD scenarios, users may either replace their device or leave the organization. Considerations must be given for how IT will address organizational data and applications on the user's device. A device can either be completely wiped where all account, data, policies, and settings are removed from the device - an action likely taken when the device is no longer be used or is lost. However, in BYOD situations, users will typically not accept IT wiping the device if they leave the company, as they would lose their personal information as well.
Mobile Device Managers (MDM) like Microsoft Intune can selectively wipe as well as remove application and application data. However, these applications must be managed and support these capabilities. The platform itself, such as iOS, Android, or Windows, can also be a factor. Before granting access to data and applications, IT should consider how these applications and data can be removed. Regardless of which methods you choose for data removal, users should be made aware of policies before enrolling devices.