Vital Records Storage solution guide

The Safest Information Storage on Earth - Is in Earth

There’s no getting around it. Records that are vital to your business, such as contracts, intellectual property, deeds, and articles of incorporation, must be kept in order to establish your business’s legal and financial status following any number of incidents. A lot of this information is so old it’s stored on film-based media like microfiche, microfilm, and aperture cards … in cabinets or a pile of boxes in random offices.

But events like theft and environmental factors like floods, fires, and humidity place that information at real risk. And the situation is exacerbated by the rise of distributed workforces unable to access this information, equipment obsolescence, real estate consolidation, and the retirement of staff who know how to handle this legacy media.

The answer lies below

Iron Mountain has a mountain – literally. Deep inside this mountain in Pennsylvania lies the heart of our vital records storage solutions. “The Underground,” as it’s known, is the perfect environment in which to store information and records that your business simply can’t lose. It provides:

• Protection from natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and fires
• Carefully controlled temperature and humidity, optimized for everything from paper to fiche and film records
• World-class security and safety measures guarding against catastrophes such as theft and acts of terrorism

Secure transport and storage

Our under-earth storage facility is just scratching the surface of Iron Mountain’s value in protecting your vital records. No other company can match our secure chain of custody. From picking up your records wherever they’re currently stored through transportation to our subterranean facility, we account for and secure your information every step of the way.

From physical to virtual

Beyond superior subterranean storage, Iron Mountain can free your information from paper, microfiche, microfilm, and/or aperture cards so it's accessible and shareable with people anytime, anywhere.

• Unmingle the Commingled "“ With Iron Mountain Smart Sort, our experts can sort your information stored on legacy media to identify what should be digitized for easy access, what you can backfile for later access, and what can be securely destroyed because it's no longer needed.
• Backfile Imaging "“ We can digitize everything or just what you want at a pace that fits your business goals and budget.
• Image on Demand (IOD) "“ We offer a cost-effective conversion solution for film-based documents that have low-retrieval activity, and we promise next-day availability for any specific images you request.

Image on Demand

What it is

• Rather than scanning all documents – which can be costly and often unnecessary – you can request specific documents “on demand” as needed.

• The digital documents you request are made available within the next business day.

• You pay as you go for only the documents you need, when you need them.

How it works

• You request a record for delivery from Iron Mountain.
• The record is retrieved, scanned, indexed, and expertly reviewed for accuracy and quality.
• The information is securely encrypted and sent directly to your document management system or to Iron Mountain ConnectTM for quick, easy retrieval.

Flexible and affordable pricing

You might think it would cost a mountain of cash to store your vital records in a mountain. Not true. We offer a range of storage and pricing options to keep from burying your budget.

You can simply store your vital records for minimal cost – with the average customer paying hundreds, not thousands, of dollars per month. Then pay for only the images you need, when you need them. We can also set up a plan to digitize records over time so you can spread costs over years, digitizing vital information and storing or destroying the rest.

Example of vital records:

• Microfiche, Microfilm, Aperture Cards
• Contracts
• Patents and Intellectual Property
• Leases
• Policy Manuals
• Articles of Incorporation
• Quality Assurance Documents
• Blueprints/Drawings/Maps
• Laboratory Notebooks
• Deeds
• Audio-/Videotapes
• Photos and Slides
• Cultural Artifacts

Why Iron Mountain

Did we mention we have a mountain? Beyond that:

• We’ve made a sizable investment to digitize fiche and film in our state-of-the-art Imaging Center, and we continue to invest in ongoing innovations.
• Our secure chain of custody ensures your information remains secure from pickup to storage and digitization to digital delivery.
• We’ll give you the power to access and share information that was once locked on film to improve collaboration across your organization.

Enter the Mountain

Learn how Iron Mountain can help protect your organization’s most valuable assets.