Data center decommissioning best practices report

Repurpose Without Risk

How to get the most from your still-valuable data center assets

For data center operators, expert decommissioning is a must. Remaining a leader in technology innovation and efficiency means frequently refreshing both hardware and infrastructure, even as complexity and variety of those refreshes continue to grow.

Additional storage is required to keep pace with exponential data growth, whereas heavier workloads and the latest applications – such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and edge computing – drive soaring demand for compute power.

Decommissioning in this hyper-competitive environment creates new business imperatives, not the least of which is to decommission data bearing assets securely and effectively. This practice is mission-critical in data centers, which process and store sensitive data belonging to thousands or even millions of people, businesses and governments around the world.

The rising incidence of data breaches and increased data-theft risks compounds the need for rigorous security measures, including those implemented at the end of the hardware lifecycle. Therefore, stringent data sanitization is fundamental to the decommissioning process. When executed correctly, it unlocks untapped value in data center hardware and infrastructure after the assets’ initial lifecycle and primary market use.

To unlock that potential, data center operators must employ a new approach to hardware lifecycle planning and management – from design to decommissioning to redeployment and reuse. Full racks can be reused and redeployed externally. Millions of pounds of gear can be kept out of the waste stream. That’s circular data center thinking. And it’s how IT organizations can optimize the value of their assets and the total cost of ownership (TCO) for their entire data center operations.