When it’s time to retire outdated hardware, we make sure it’s done safely, securely, and sustainably.
Our IT Asset Disposal service helps your business clear out old equipment without compromising data security or contributing to e-waste. From secure data wiping to environmentally responsible recycling, we handle the entire process — so you don’t have to.
Secure IT Asset Disposal for Sarasota Businesses
Portolan Networks retires old computers, servers and drives for businesses across Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. We sanitize every hard drive and SSD to NIST 800-88 R2 standards before the equipment goes to a certified e-waste recycler, which sanitizes it again, and we provide certificates of destruction when you need them. Physical shredding is available.
Secure, responsible disposal
How it works
- Tell us what’s going. One old laptop or a few dozen devices.
- Let us know your documentation needs before pickup, including whether you need certificates of destruction or physical shredding, so the right paperwork is generated at each step.
- We sanitize the drives to NIST 800-88 R2 standards. We use Active KillDisk, which generates a certificate for each wipe.
- A certified e-waste recycler takes it from there, sanitizing again as a second layer of protection and providing its own certificate of destruction.
Wipe or shred?
For most businesses, NIST 800-88 R2 sanitization plus certified recycler handling meets widely recognized data-destruction standards. If your compliance requirements, or your peace of mind, call for physical destruction, we work with a specialized recycler that shreds the drives instead.
Compliance obligations vary by industry, so confirm your specific requirements (HIPAA or others) with your compliance officer or attorney. We’ll accommodate what they need.
When to plan disposal
Disposal is usually the last step of a hardware refresh. If you’re planning replacements, our IT consulting service can build a lifecycle plan so retirements happen on schedule instead of piling up in a closet. Data on old drives is a security risk until it’s destroyed; see our cybersecurity services.
Common Questions
We sanitize hard drives and solid-state drives to NIST 800-88 R2 standards before any equipment goes to recycling. From there, computers are transferred to a certified e-waste recycler, where they’re sanitized again as an added layer of protection. If your business requires physical destruction of storage media — for compliance reasons or extra peace of mind — we work with a specialized recycler that physically shreds the drives instead.
Compliance requirements vary by industry and organization, so we’d defer to your compliance officer or attorney to confirm what your specific obligations require. Our standard process — NIST 800-88 R2 sanitization plus certified recycler handling — is designed to meet widely recognized data destruction standards. If your business has additional or specific requirements around asset disposal, we’re happy to discuss how we can accommodate them.
Yes. We use established sanitization software that generates certificates for our own data-wiping process, and our e-waste recycling partners also provide their own certificates of destruction. If you need a certificate of destruction, let us know before we pick up your equipment — that ensures the right documentation gets generated at every step of the process.
That depends on the facility handling your equipment and your specific requirements. By default, functional hardware may be resold, recycled, or destroyed at the recycling facility’s discretion. If you’d prefer your hardware not be resold, let us know — we can direct it to one of our partner facilities that destroys all hardware and separates the metals for recycling, rather than reselling any of it.
We handle disposal requests of any size, from a single old computer to a few dozen items. For larger-scale disposals, reach out and we’ll see if we can accommodate your needs directly — and if we can’t, we’re happy to point you toward someone who can.
It’s free for our managed IT clients. For other businesses, we’ll quote it up front based on what’s going.
If you have old equipment sitting around because no one’s sure how to get rid of it safely, book a time on my calendar. Or call (941) 200-4360.