🖥️ Data Centres & MSPs

Decommissioning is a controlled process, not a clear-out

Stripping a rack is straightforward. Doing it so that every drive is accounted for, every serial is recorded, and nothing walks off between the cabinet and the vehicle is the actual work. Server and storage estates concentrate more data per kilogram than anything else we handle, and the asset values are high enough to be attractive.

Our process is built around that: assets logged and tagged at the point of collection, documented chain of custody from your floor to our facility, and serialised destruction records at the end. Where you need drives removed and destroyed separately from chassis, that is a normal request — say so when you plan the job.

MSPs: you are the processor, and it is your name on it

If you manage IT for clients, their data on decommissioned hardware is your responsibility as a processor. When a client asks how their old server was disposed of, the answer needs to be better than the name of a recycler.

We work with MSPs and other providers on a white-label basis. You keep the client relationship; we provide the licensed processing and the documentation, branded or unbranded as you prefer. Practically, that means:

• Per-client serialised certificates you can pass straight on
• Our licence documentation available for your own client due diligence packs
• Overflow capacity when a decommission is larger than you want to handle in-house
• Confidentiality about the arrangement, which is usually the point

SSDs at scale

Flash storage changes the calculation. Degaussing does nothing to an SSD — it is a magnetic process applied to a non-magnetic medium — and any supplier who offers to degauss your solid state drives does not understand the media well enough to be trusted with it.

Our approach: sanitise to NIST 800-88 Rev 2 Purge where the drive supports it and can be verified, and physically shred where it cannot. At data centre volumes the split matters commercially, because verified-wiped enterprise SSDs retain real resale value while shredded ones do not. We will tell you which is which rather than defaulting to whichever suits us.

Site realities

Data centre and comms room work has constraints that office collections do not:

• Access control. Pre-authorisation, photo ID, escort requirements and sometimes per-visit approval. Arrange it before the day.
• Floor loading and lifts. A full rack is heavy. Goods lift capacity and booking windows are frequently the binding constraint on how fast a job can go.
• Live adjacency. Most decommissions happen next to equipment that is very much still running. That dictates pace and method.
• Out-of-hours. Often the only workable window. Possible with notice.
• Structured cabling. Frequently forgotten in the plan, and a surprising amount of labour. Decide upfront whether it is in scope.

Residual value in enterprise hardware

Enterprise equipment holds value differently from office kit. Recent CPUs, populated memory, enterprise SSDs, GPUs and networking hardware all have active secondary markets, and a decommission of any size is worth valuing before it is written off. It is not unusual for the recoverable value of a modern rack to cover the cost of the decommissioning work.

The main things that destroy value: missing rails and caddies, asset engraving, and leaving equipment in a store room for two years after it came out of service.