When dealing with data center infrastructure, most of the attention is usually given to initial design and implementation. The longevity of such endeavors depends, after all, on how it can adapt to changing needs and technology over time. So, there’s a strong focus on the initial deployment of assets and how organizations can access data.
However, one aspect of this is often overlooked: the decommissioning of assets. When done strategically, though, managing the end-of-life of media enables organizations to significantly increase the profitability of a data center.
Asset Management and Decommissioning
Planning for the eventual decommissioning of assets involves thinking ahead about how hardware and equipment will be retired or replaced as they reach the end of their useful life. For instance, in financial institutions, the data center operators that streamline this process can, in fact, minimize downtime and maximize the value of retired assets.
For example, instead of letting outdated equipment languish unused or disposed of improperly, they can identify opportunities for repurposing, refurbishing, or reselling components that still hold value. This doesn’t just offer environmental benefits – it can also lead to better cost-effectiveness and reduce the environmental impact of your asset management practices.
The key to effective decommissioning is properly disposing of retired assets to ensure data security and environmental compliance, something that goes well beyond simply removing retired assets from the data center. So, let’s explore how state regulations, sustainability, and cost can all play a critical role in asset management.
The Importance of Efficient Asset Decommissioning
Data security is paramount in the decommissioning process. Retired assets may contain confidential or proprietary data that must be protected from unauthorized access or disclosure. This includes customer information, financial institution and financial analysis records, intellectual property, and other sensitive data stored on hard drives, tapes, SSDs, and other storage media.
To ensure data security, retired assets must be disposed of in a manner that renders the data irretrievable. This often involves using specialized equipment such as disintegrators, degaussers, and destroyers to physically or electronically destroy the storage media beyond recovery.
In addition to this, environmental compliance is also a crucial consideration in the decommissioning process. Improper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) can have harmful effects on the environment and climate change, as well as impact human health due to the presence of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. So, to ensure compliance, the retired assets must be disposed of in accordance with applicable regulations and best practices for e-waste management.
The Role of Disintegrators, Degaussers, and Destroyers
Disintegrators, degaussers, and destroyers are essential tools in the process of decommissioning assets. These secure and efficient methods can help your center dispose of data-bearing devices such as hard drives, tapes, and SSDs.
Some recommended devices include:
- Disintegrators: These machines physically shred data-bearing devices into small particles, rendering them irrecoverable. Disintegrators are highly effective at destroying hard drives and other storage media, ensuring that sensitive data cannot be retrieved once a device is decommissioned.
- Degaussers: Degaussers use powerful magnetic fields to erase data from magnetic storage media such as tapes and hard drives. By exposing the media to intense magnetic fields, degaussers effectively scramble the data, making it unreadable and unrecoverable. However, this method is not effective if your data is not magnetically encoded. It is rendered useless on SSDs, and even new hybrid models of HDDs like HAMR and MAMR drives. Their is not a degausser on the market that can scramble the data encoded on HAMR and MAMR drives.
- Destroyers: Hard drive destroyers and Solid-state drive destroyers are specialized machines designed to crush or pierce data-bearing devices, rendering them inoperable. These devices are particularly useful for dealing with storage media that may be resistant to shredding or degaussing. They are often destroyed either by crushing or “waffling” the drives to destroy them beyond recovery.
Maximizing Profitability Through Asset Recovery
Ensuring data security is paramount, but strategic decommissioning can also unlock value from retired assets. By carefully evaluating decommissioned hardware, your data center operators can identify components that are still functional or have resale value.
These components can be refurbished, repurposed, or sold on the secondary market, providing a source of revenue and reducing the overall cost of ownership for the data center. For instance:
- Functional components can be refurbished to extend their lifespan and improve performance. Refurbished components can then be reintegrated into the data center infrastructure or offered for resale to other organizations.
- Components that retain resale value can be sold on the secondary market to recoup a portion of the initial investment.
- Disintegrators can shred various materials, including metal, plastic, and electronic components, into small particles that can often be recycled and/or sold.
For example, the MediaDice® All Media Disintegrator A10 disintegrates all types of media (including SSDs, hard drives, switches, and laptops) into particles measuring 10mm x 10mm. What’s more, the device has a built-in magnetic metal separator that helps with e-waste recycling by separating the scrap metal from the precious rare earth metals.
Conclusion
In the competitive world of data centers, longevity and profitability go hand in hand. By incorporating decommissioning plans into your infrastructure design and utilizing tools such as disintegrators, data center operators can extend the life of their facilities, enhance data security, and maximize profitability over time. What’s more, asset management can help reduce the environmental impacts of your operations and protect the future generations.
Phiston Technologies is the world leader in end-of-life media destruction. Explore our broad range of products and discover the perfect solution for your data center design.
