Intelligent Data Centres Issue 02 | Page 29

EDITOR’S QUESTION WHAT BEST PRACTICE APPROACH SHOULD DATA CENTRE MANAGERS TAKE TO MANAGING OUTDATED EQUIPMENT? ew research launched by Blancco Technology Group, a leader in data erasure and mobile device diagnostics, has outlined the staggering cost to global organisations of old, outdated IT equipment cluttering up data centres. This is primarily the risk of sensitive data that is stored on old IT hardware of being breached or misused. Put simply, organisations are opting to spend vast sums of money storing these devices, contrary in many cases, to data protection laws and regulations, rather than entrusting them to data erasure experts for wiping before reuse. A survey of 600 data centre experts from APAC, Europe and North America reveals that two in five organisations that store their data in-house spend more than US$100,000 storing useless IT hardware that could pose a security or compliance risk. “Global organisations are unnecessarily wasting vast sums of money from non- compliance and onsite storage fees – charges that could be easily mitigated,” said Fredrik Forslund, Vice President, Enterprise and Cloud Erasure Solutions at Blancco. Astonishingly, more than half of these companies (54%) have been cited at least once or twice by regulators or governing bodies for noncompliance with international data protection laws. “This points to a huge lack of education within the sector about what to do with hardware that is faulty or has reached end-of-life. Organisations are letting this hardware pile up in fear of data leakage, resulting in loss of efficiency, increasing capital costs, possible noncompliance and potential security risks.” N Fines of up to US$1.5 million could be issued for HIPAA violations due to storing data past its retention date, with that number multiplied by the number of years each violation has been allowed to persist. Blancco’s exclusive study, The High Cost of Cluttered Data Centers, produced in partnership with Coleman Parks, reflects the extent to which global organisations are paralysed by fear of reputational damage. www.intelligentdatacentres.com The global data centre industry remains gripped by a lack of time and resources to complete comprehensive data privacy processes. This remains one of the key reasons why organisations, particularly those that own their own data centres and store all data onsite, are keeping IT assets past their useful lives. Issue 02 29