Hot off the press from the CES are several product releases aiming at an even more mobile and flexible work environment. In its article, “8 Big CES 2022 Announcements And New Products You Might Have Missed,” IT channel news magazine CRN reports that Intel, AMD, and Nvidia have launched increasingly fast processors for data and graphics, feeding new computing devices from the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

While the annual Computer Electronics Show, branded “The Most Influential Tech Event in the Word,” regularly highlights innovative and ambitious technologies, laptops and desktops deserve special focus.

We are all very familiar by now with the hybrid work environment requiring increased mobility, a greater need to process audio and video for remote communications, and the need to protect data across a widely distributed work environment made up of constantly changing technology. It should be no surprise, then, that several computer manufacturers are touting thinner, lighter, faster laptops geared to the remote employee.

From a data sanitization point of view, we see two key things to highlight.

  • Firstly, data protection practices must keep pace with operational changes. With more asset replacement and decommissioning programs having to take home offices into account, new innovations in remote erasure processing will continue to increase in importance. Remote work has become the norm rather than the exception, and instituting data and device end-of-life policies and practices that aggressively protect sensitive or private information across this distributed environment must be developed, executed, and updated accordingly.
  • Secondly, product release news, such as from Intel and HP, continues to focus on more Chromebook models. This is a category of devices that members of the sanitization industry (ITADs and other service providers) are now processing efficiently with secure, high-volume methods. That is a big leap forward since many Chromebooks were physically destroyed after first enterprise usage not long ago. Now they can be safely reused to support the circular economy instead.

Technological innovation does not, and should not, stand still. Agile companies are rapidly meeting market needs with fascinating developments in data processing and storage. It is imperative that data management leaders at every organization review their data security and device disposal policies to ensure data sanitization methods are keeping up.

Read next: Data Sanitization as Defined by Gartner.