Data Center Decommissioning: How to Get It Right as You Move to the Cloud

Moving physical data centers to the cloud is hard work — and you may not want to do it on your own.

The process creates many logistical challenges, as well as security risks, and the potential to leave residual value on the table.

At Inteleca, we have helped customers complete hundreds of data center decommissioning projects. We’ve learned many lessons along the way, and wrote this blog to share some of our takeaways with you.

Key Takeaways:

• Why companies like yours perform data center decommissioning projects
  
• 5 steps for getting your data center decommissioning project right
  
• Your 2 most important priorities — data security, and reclaiming value
  
• Why it’s worth partnering with an ITAD for your decommissioning project
  
  

Why is Data Center Decommissioning Worth Getting Right?

Data center decommissioning is the process of retiring the equipment from a data center, scrubbing it of data, breaking it down, and shipping it away  — either for recycling, reselling, or disposal.

Companies of all sizes decommission their data centers. In most cases, they will decommission their physical data centers as part of a broader cloud migration strategy. By moving away from their physical data center and embracing the cloud, companies can generate benefits that include:

• Increasing security. Physical data center equipment is often old, difficult to maintain, and rife with potential exploits and vulnerabilities. Cloud-based systems are typically more secure, and the cloud providers are responsible for the bulk of security activities.
  
• Reducing costs. Physical data centers are expensive to maintain. They force companies to purchase equipment, own or rent space to store that equipment, and hire employees to manage them. These costs are included within cloud-based systems, at a more efficient price-point.
  
• Improving efficiency. Physical data centers often use outdated equipment that require manual, time-consuming processes to maintain. Cloud-based systems often leverage modern, effective equipment and processes that are largely automated.
  

However, despite these benefits, a data center decommissioning project can still be high-risk. Most companies simply don’t have the staff, bandwidth, or experience needed to go through the process in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Thankfully, there are a few steps that any company can take to increase their chances at a successful decommissioning project.

5 Steps to Decommission a Data Center the Right Way

Data center decommissioning projects fail for one big reason — they are very, very complex. These projects involve many people, devices, and stages of work. When a company undertakes a decommissioning project, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, to lose track of what needs to be done, and to miss critical activities along the way.

From our experience, there are five steps that help companies better manage project complexity, and reduce their risk of failure. They are:  

1. Plan, plan, plan. Put more time into planning than you think you need — most orgs underestimate the volume and complexity of the work. 
   
2. Take inventory. Create a detailed and thorough account of every piece of equipment in your facility, and what will happen with it. 
   
3. Create a paper trail. Document every movement of every device, for your own records and to handle potential legal or regulatory actions.
   
4. Maintain uptime. Know what applications depend on the servers you are decommissioning, and how to migrate them pre-decommission.
   
5. Keep communication flowing. Overcommunicate, if needed, to avoid misunderstandings with your internal and external stakeholders.
   

Following these five steps will set you up for success during any decommissioning project. However, within the process there are two key priorities that can make or break the success of the project, and demand much greater consideration — maintaining data security, and reclaiming value from your equipment.  

Priority 1: Data Security

When you decommission a device, you must be mindful of the sensitive data it once held, and remove that data before the device leaves your premises.

This is doubly true when you decommission an entire data center’s worth of devices. If you fail to clean every single device, you expose yourself to big risks.  

Consider Morgan Stanley. In 2020 they received a $60 million fine due to a 2016 breach. The breach happened because Morgan Stanley failed to properly decommission a data center. Some of their decommissioned devices still held customer data, that data leaked, and Morgan Stanley paid the price.  

Even if you don’t suffer a leak, you may still be subject to industry regulations that dictate how you handle data security during a decommissioning project. Frameworks like HIPAA and GDPR provide guidelines you must meet at every stage of data ownership, including disposition.

How to avoid data security risks

There’s no shortcut to managing data security during decommissioning, but there are a few clear practices you can follow to minimize your risk.

• Perform an assessment, pre-decommissioning. Go into the project knowing what data you have in your data center, where it’s stored, and what risks will open during migration and decommissioning devices.
  
• Align with standards for data destruction. Organizations like NIST provide proven best practices for cleaning devices of their data that are aligned with different tiers of data sensitivity and potential risk.
  
• When in doubt, erase everything. Sanitize every single device in the data center to the greatest degree possible, and consider physically destroying any devices that cannot be reused or reclaimed.
  
• Don’t forget data in transit. During the decommissioning process, you will move data from your data center to the cloud. Ensure that data is secured during the movement, not only at rest on devices.
  
• Mind your physical security as well. Data center decommissioning involves a lot of people physically accessing your sites, breaking down infrastructure, and moving devices — all of which create risk of theft.
  
• Document and certify the process. Track every step of the data destruction process, put it all down on paper, and be able to prove you did it all properly in the event of a regulatory audit or legal action.

Priority 2: Reclaiming Value

Properly sanitizing your devices of sensitive data is step one.

After that, you will be able to repurpose some of those devices in order to recoup a portion of your initial investment — risk free.

Some of those devices can be repurposed to other parts of your organization, including but not limited to other physical data centers you still maintain.

The rest of those devices may be resold — in whole or in part — to the secondary markets. These are typically companies that save budget by purchasing and deploying functional but previously used IT equipment.

How to reclaim value from decommissioned devices

There are multiple reseller channels for decommissioned equipment, including auctions and direct sales, and it can be confusing to navigate.

There are a few nuances to consider when reclaiming value.

• You don’t need to sell the entire device. Some devices can’t be resold for a worthwhile amount (or at all), but they may include components or materials that are worth breaking down and selling on their own.
  
• You do need to consider the chain of custody. When reselling devices, it’s wise to maintain a record of where everything went and how it got there, in the event of a regulatory or legal issue involving your devices.
  
• You can improve sustainability through reselling. Data center devices count as e-Waste, and reselling assets and their materials prevents regulatory issues and enhances corporate responsibility.
  
• It’s a lot easier when you work with the right partner. A reputable IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) partner will evaluate your devices, determine what can be sold and at what price, and handle everything from picking up the equipment, to selling and delivering it.

Ultimately, working with an ITAD partner will make reclaiming value much easier. And if you select the right partner with the right experience and portfolio of services, they can offer value that extends well being reclamation.

Picking the Right ITAD Partner

The right IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) partner can handle every step of a data center decommissioning process for you — from planning through hands-on stripping and shipping, all while taking care of security and reclamation.

When selecting an ITAD partner for your data center decommissioning, look for the following characteristics:

• They have significant experience, and have achieved meaningful certifications for handling decommissioned devices (including R2v3)
  
• They are capable of planning and performing the entire data center decommissioning process, including on-site services
  
• They can significantly offset or even fully pay for their own service fees through their device remarketing strategy and channel expertise
  

Inteleca is one such ITAD provider.

 
We have decades of experience with decommissioning data centers, and with IT asset disposition in general. We provide a full spectrum of services, including hardware provisioning, network design, and IT support across the IT asset lifecycle, and have achieved the top industry certifications including R2v3.

To learn more about our data center decommissioning services and track record — and to see if we’re the right partner for you — reach out today and schedule a free consultation. Just click here.