Reselling old storage devices whenupgrading to newer platformscan be a complex issue,
particularly when it comes to the content stored on it. But there
are established channels and service providers which are geared up
to help. Storage units are often perfectly adequate for other
users, despite lacking a manufacturer's warranty.
The resale of storage media presents a range of information
security and
environmental challenges, according to Kate Garbellini from
Deloitte's Security and Privacy team.
She says that if the data stored on a device no longer needs to
be kept, and your organisation's policy which governs the media
permits its reuse or resale, you will need to decide on which
tools, procedures and budget will be required to adequately clear
the discs of data.
If the data's classification and organisational policy do not
permit the use of the storage device outside the organisation,
there are a number of issues that must be considered prior to its
resale. These include considering whether degaussing (randomising
the storage media's magnetic fields) is sufficient, or whether more
thorough measures need to be taken - for example, drilling,
grinding, shredding or incineration. If so, you need to address the
environmental and recycling concerns, and ensure that precious
and valuable materials are recovered.
"Many organisations outsource the recycling of storage media to
dedicated establishments with access to specialist equipment to
ensure
environmental compliance and cost efficiency," says
Garbellini.
She adds that when working with recycling service providers,
businesses have a responsibility to agree contracts and standards
that will meet their own industry's data security requirements.
Vibrant reseller market
There appears to be a vibrant market for
refurbished hard drives on sites such as eBay, with a number of
active volume resellers operating.
One respected IT hosting firm, Memset, frequently sells its old
hard drives in "job lots" on eBay, after ensuring that the data on
the hard drives has been thoroughly overwritten.
There are many service providers that help organisations to
decommission their legacy servers and storage hardware, through
disposal, recycling, part exchange or resale. IT services firm
Morse is one of these.
Morse consultant Tim Turquand says that firms such as his can
ensure that data is completely removed from devices and guarantee
that any disposal is performed in accordance with the Environment
Agency's
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives and
data protection legislation.
They can also provide certification of all activities, as well
as meeting data deletion standards such as HMG Infosec Standard 5,
ITSG-06 or NIST SP-800-88.
Turquand advises businesses to make decommissioning storage an
ongoing process rather than a series of one-off events. "If they
take a holistic view of their entire technology lifecycle, from
purchase to running and maintenance, they can make better decisions
on when to retire assets. Thus, storage can be resold when it still
has value, rather than waiting until it is only worth something as
scrap."
Mike Vinten, chief executive officer of professional services
firm Thesaurus, says he is currently seeing larger numbers of old
IBM Enterprise Storage Servers (Sharks) and Hitachi Data
Storage systems being resold.
He adds that when reselling any storage it is always worth going
through a managed services supplier, as they tend to have strong
links with brokerage firms. "Using the expertise of an IT supplier
removes the demands from a business, which will have to work twice
as hard to find a suitable resell outlet."
Vinten adds that if the need to replace a device is part of an
upgrade to the latest technology and a company has a managed
services contract, then the managed services supplier will often
arrange to get a buy-back value as well as arranging the removal of
the old storage.
"Timely management of the installation of the new system is key
and the
migration of the data should be done seamlessly to ensure
minimal disruption to business continuity.
"Reselling storage in this way is significantly cheaper than
disposing of the technology due to the nature of non-biodegradeable
storage elements and in turn helps to fund the new purchase," he
said.