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ALM for Data Center Assets
Achieve circular data center excellence
No matter how large or varied your data center footprint is, Iron Mountain has the experience, physical resources, and global presence to support you with secure and sustainable asset lifecycle management services. We operate in the most complex environments all over the world across owned sites, co-location facilities, and small points of presence.
Our large breadth of services ensure strict security and audit compliance, while maximizing value recovery from retired hardware. Iron Mountain ensures unmatched data security through a secure chain of custody that tracks IT assets at every stage of their journey.
What is data center decommissioning?
Data center decommissioning is the process of securely retiring, relocating or removing IT infrastructure during events such as cloud migrations, technology refreshes, facility consolidations or data center closures. It involves planning, asset inventory, data sanitization, equipment removal and responsible IT asset disposition to ensure retired assets are managed securely and efficiently.
ITAD services for data centers
ITAD services for data centers
As we develop a service plan that complements your data center strategy, we will also ensure we are meeting your requirements for technology integrations, project management, and reporting.
- API integration:
Our tech integration ensures a streamlined workflow within your existing systems, improving the asset management experience for client administrators through frictionless case management, logistics scheduling, inventory management, dashboards, reporting, and workflow automations. - Audit-ready reporting:
Our on-demand reporting ensures you have easy access to inventory reports, audit reports, settlement reports, certificates of destruction (CODs), and sustainability reports that include metrics like e-waste diversion, materials recovered, and CO2 reduction.
From asset receiving and tagging to storage, we ensure your assets are visible and available when you need them.
- Inventory management:
Our inventory management services, including asset receiving, tagging, tracking, and storage, ensure that your IT investment is well-managed and available for deployment when you need it.
Asset tagging enables precise tracking through serialized labels, RFID tags, or barcodes. Comprehensive inventory management systems record each asset's status and location.
Periodic audits are conducted to verify inventory accuracy and ensure policy adherence, mitigating the risk of loss or misappropriation of assets.
Deployment marks the transition of hardware from preparation to active use. Our industry-leading logistics ensure timely and accurate delivery of your data center assets.
- Forward logistics
Our forward logistics services include meticulous record-keeping, including real-time asset status, providing a clear, on-demand view of the deployment landscape.
When it comes to the removal of data center infrastructure, Iron Mountain provides an industry-leading chain of custody for asset collections.
- Asset packing:
Our technicians will expertly pack and remove your assets from your data center and transport them to our state-of-the-art facilities for further processing according to your requirements. - Collection:
Your ready-to-transport data center assets are individually scanned and picked up by our secure and reliable logistics team for transport back to our facilities for processing.
Our ADISA-certified, NIST 800-88 compliant data sanitization service ensures the secure remarketing of HDD and SSD storage devices.
- Data sanitization:
All hard drives identified for reuse are thoroughly wiped using an ADISA-certified, NIST 800-88 compliant data sanitization platform. A serialized certificate of sanitization is provided for all sanitized assets. Learn more about Teraware in this video. - Remarket:
Our remarketing network enables the resale of servers and drives in the secondary market – offering value recovery back to your organization. We also provide a monthly settlement report to ensure transparency into the remarketing process.
When data center assets are no longer suitable for reuse, our onsite and offsite destruction options and sustainable e-waste recycling services ensure your assets are responsibly disposed of.
- Secure destruction & e-waste recycling:
For the physical destruction of data-bearing assets, we offer onsite or offsite shredding of storage media. All physically destroyed media is accompanied by a certificate of destruction (COD). Physically shredded media and hardware of no residual value are separated into commodities and sent to R2 or e-Stewards-certified recyclers to be reintroduced into the supply chain, reducing the need for extracting raw materials from the earth.
Data center decommissioning process
Every data center decommissioning project follows a structured process to minimize risk, protect sensitive data and maximize the value of retired IT assets.
- Assessment and planning: Define the project scope, timeline and decommissioning requirements.
- Asset inventory and tracking: Identify and track all IT assets to maintain visibility and chain of custody.
- Data sanitization: Securely erase or destroy data on storage devices using certified methods.
- Equipment removal: Safely disconnect, package and transport IT equipment from the facility.
- Remarketing and reuse: Maximize asset value by refurbishing and remarketing eligible equipment.
- Recycling and disposition: Responsibly recycle or dispose of assets that cannot be reused in accordance with environmental regulations.
- Documentation and reporting: Provide detailed reporting, certificates of data destruction and audit-ready documentation to support compliance.
Decom workflow diagram
Data center ITAD & decommissioning step-by-step
Benefits of professional data center decommissioning services
Our professional data center decommissioning services help you securely retire IT infrastructure while minimizing risk and maximizing business value. This includes:
- Improve data security: Protect sensitive information with secure data sanitization, chain of custody and certified destruction processes.
- Support regulatory compliance: Meet industry and data privacy requirements with comprehensive reporting and audit-ready documentation.
- Reduce operational risk: Minimize disruption through expert project planning, equipment removal and logistics management.
- Advance sustainability goals: Extend asset lifecycles through reuse and responsible recycling to reduce e-waste.
- Maximize asset value recovery: Recover value from eligible IT equipment through refurbishment and remarketing.
- Simplify project management: Work with a single provider to manage every stage of the decommissioning process.
- Scale globally: Deliver consistent ITAD services for data centers across multiple facilities and geographic locations.
* Gartner Market Guide for IT Asset Disposition; Rob Schafer, Christopher Dixon, Autumn Stanish; February 24, 2026 GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
By the numbers
- 297racks
- 121,893drives (HDD, SSD, flash cards)
- 100%of drives erased or securely destroyed, with certification
- 4 daysdata elimination complete
- 2 weeksall racks removed
- $4.4Mclient proceeds
Frequently asked questions
What is data center IT asset disposition?
Data center IT asset disposition (ITAD) is the secure process of retiring, sanitizing, reusing, remarketing, recycling or disposing of IT equipment at the end of its lifecycle while protecting data and supporting compliance.
What assets are included in a data center decommissioning project?
Projects typically include servers, storage systems, networking equipment, racks, switches, firewalls, cables, power distribution units (PDUs), UPS systems and other supporting IT infrastructure.
How do ITAD services support data center decommissioning?
ITAD services securely remove, track, sanitize, transport, remarket, recycle or dispose of retired IT assets while providing chain of custody and compliance documentation.
How is data destroyed during data center decommissioning?
Data is securely destroyed using certified sanitization methods, such as software-based erasure or physical destruction of storage media, depending on security and compliance requirements.
What happens to retired servers and storage devices?
Assets are evaluated for reuse or resale whenever possible. Equipment that cannot be repurposed is responsibly recycled or disposed of in accordance with environmental regulations.
How can organizations maximize value recovery during a decommissioning project?
Working with an experienced ITAD provider helps identify assets with resale value, enabling refurbishment and remarketing to offset decommissioning costs.
