Secure and sustainable data center decommissioning

Top health-tech company fast tracks data center decommissioning while ensuring data security and environmental sustainability

"The SITAD service meant we didn't have to needlessly tie up resources and could take care of more pressing building closure and cloud migration tasks."
Company spokesperson

Challenge

Up against an immovableeight-week deadline, this techleader had to securely disposeof legacy data-bearing, on-premisesservers and migrateoperations to a private cloud,hosted from a new data centerin the U.S.

Solution

Iron Mountain^® Secure IT Asset Disposition (SITAD) ensured a secure chain of custody and the environmentally responsible disposition of old server drives, while providing certificates of recycling.

Results

Freed from dismantling and wiping old hardware, the company’s IT team turned their attention to data migration, system shutdowns,and other priorities, ensuring the company relinquished the property and met its legal commitments to the new owners on time.

Cloud transformation drives integrated health solutions

"Iron Mountain did a fantastic job de-racking, removing, and cataloging all our redundant data drives, while taking care not to disrupt any live servers that were still in operation." Company spokesperson

Rapid, reliable disposal of end-of-life servers

Immovable deadline

Famed worldwide for innovation, the company is at the forefront of connected healthcare and helping clinicians to deliver better diagnosis and treatment. Additionally, through cloud technologies that support data sharing and analysis, making it easier to deliver more effective, lower-cost integrated health solutions.

Facilities management and IT strategy are integral to this vision. Globally the company is moving away from cumbersome
on-premises technology to a more agile cloud-enabled business, supported by considerably less real estate and avoiding unnecessary expense.

The priority was to close its data center and consolidate all critical data within a private cloud,hosted 25 miles away in another U.S. facility.With new owners scheduled to take charge of the old building in eight weeks there wasn't a moment to lose.

Secure chain of custody

To help meet that critical path, the company chose the Iron Mountain® Secure IT Asset Disposition (SITAD) service for the rapid decommissioning and secure wiping of data held on its legacy rack servers.

“We run lean IT operations and aren’t really staffed for this kind of work,” said the project lead. “Iron Mountain are well-respected and probably the industry leader for information management from paper records archiving to data storage and destruction. So, it made sense to leverage their expertise, especially around secure chain of custody processes and certification.”

Over the following weeks, Iron Mountain specialists physically dismantled, palletized, transported, scanned,documented, and disposed of over 600 end-of-life servers and associated data drives.

Importantly, the SITAD service provided a clear audit trail from the point where the assets were picked up to when they were checked in at the processing plant. Vehicles were fitted with GPS trackers and lock sensors, while drivers were thoroughly screened and even got alerts from RFID-enabled key fobs if the vehicle was ever left unlocked.

Environmental standards met

"When you're disposing of data-laden it equipment you want to be absolutely sure it will be handled professionally with all the correct paperwork and won't ever turn up on a landfill site.With the iron mountain sitad service that's never in doubt." Company spokesperson

Speed tempered with caution

The SITAD service released the IT team to focus on data migration, system shutdowns, and other high priorities. As a result, the company was able to vacate the building on time and meet its legal obligations to the new owners.It also had the reassurance of demonstrable compliance.

"Knowing we'd retired all our servers and wiped the data in the proper way and had the certificates to prove it was very important," added the project lead. "I was also struck by how Iron Mountain tempered speed with caution and got it done."

Ongoing economies of scale

As well as safeguarding against possible data breaches, the project further enhanced the company's Global Environmental Policy and its strong track record in green business practice that stretches back to the 1970s.

"Having seen the results, we've introduced Iron Mountain to our other business units, so they can get economies of scale and streamline their supply chains too," concluded the project lead. "Not just for decommissioning servers, but also for the remarketing of PCs, laptops,mobiles, and other IT assets. That raises income, which can be offset against the cost of future technology refreshes."