Telecom Leader Consolidates Tape for More Effective DR
The Telecommunications Act of 1984 started a cascade of change that has continued to this day. Couple that with amazing changes in technology and it has made for both turbulent and exciting times for telecom providers. One such provider has been at the center of this change and is looking for ways to continuously adapt its business model in the wake of change.
With major acquisitions and consolidations it has found itself presiding over dozens of data centers, many with varying levels and ages of technology – some compatible, some not.
In the interest of providing a more robust, consistent and efficient disaster recovery process this company chose to consolidate its tape operations in 29 of those centers. What it found was an amalgamation of tape media types ranging from LTO 2 and 3, to DLT and Super DLT, to 9840-class tape.
Its aim was to be able to cross-couple the various centers for DR, so that every center could effectively provide DR capability for every other center. To do so required fewer tape technology types and newer, faster devices. But, what to do with the more than one million tape cartridges in the 29 data centers and in third party archive storage?
That’s where PeakData comes in. PeakData has managed some of the largest and most complex projects of this type, across multiple data centers and around the globe.
The PeakData team developed a proven process that can easily be replicated across all 29 centers. It consists of evaluating all media and either managing the secure and environmentally responsible destruction of that media or the recovery of value from media that has not been used.
Why destroy media? While it is not the only way to ensure that data does not fall into the wrong hands, it is definitely the most secure. PeakData not only catalogs and certifies the destruction of every piece of media, it provides a complete audit trail from data center to recycling center – even to the point of accompanying the data cartridges on every step of their journey. The recycling center recycles every component according to our zero-export, zero-landfill policy.
Blank media, on the other hand, represents about 10 percent of the total media in the project. It very often has cash value which is returned to the customer to defray a significant part of their secure destruction cost. The customer also has the option to use PeakData’s secure onsite eradication process (compliant with DoD and other relevant international standards) to recover value from cartridges which have been written to. This enables them to reduce the net project cost even further.
With a certified, secure process in place the customer can move faster and more cost-effectively toward its larger goal of disaster recovery readiness.