Old magnetic tape storage is a bottomless pit of legal risk and storage costs.

Think about this: The future of records archiving is the Cloud. Tape as a records storage technology is dead.

1. A magnetic tape has a 10-15 year life expectancy and then it becomes unusable.
2. In the last 10 years tape recording technology has changed 5 times. Your older tapes are unreadable on current technology tape devices.
3. Recovering records stored on a single older tape can cost thousands of dollars per tape.
4. The average cost of storing a single backup tape off site is $.25 per month.

(The average cost to shred a tape is $1.00 for onsite and $.50 in plant. Large volume projects can drop those costs by 50%)

“Managing legacy data is the most important thing an organization can do to reduce risk and cost associated with electronic data.”
Source: Anne Kershaw, A. Kershaw PC / Attorneys & Consultants

Conclusion: What are you waiting for? Advocate for the aggressive disposal of your archived tape records.

See “Information Management” magazine article in the November/December 2016
“Report: 2016 a Good Year for E-Discovery”
The implementation of FRCP Rules 26(b)(1) and 37(e) have significantly reduced the risk of court sanctions for applying sound records management rules for records disposal.

Proper Tape Data Sanitization
Disposing of magnetic tape requires that all recorded data is destroyed and that the data sanitization process meets with both your internal data security needs and regulatory data privacy requirements. Regulatory data privacy regulations require that you follow NIST Special Publication 800-88 “Guidelines for Media Sanitization” NIST approves both tape degaussing and tape shredding as acceptable data sanitization methods.

Degaussing or Shredding Tape
Degaussing is typically done onsite utilizing a portable degausser for smaller quantities of tapes usually less than 500 . Portable degaussers have the ability to process 3 to 4 tapes or hard drives per minute. Thus, degaussing is not a practical alternative for large quantities of tapes. Mobile shred trucks can process 1000+ tapes per hour. Large plant based shredders can process 4000 plus per hour.

Onsite or Plant Based Tape Sanitization
Onsite sanitization offers the elimination of the possible loss of media in transit but it is more expensive than plant based sanitization. For large quantities, 10000 plus tapes, secure transportation to a plant based shredding facility is the least cost alternative and with effective inventory chain of possession handling practices actually provides a more secure handling process. Another onsite shredding concern is the length of time a project may take. A large 50,000 tape project would require over 5 full days of onsite processing. Plant based pick up of manifested pallets of tape cartons can be done in less than a day thus minimizing your operational disruption.

Tape Volser Inventory or Bulk Count
Individual tape inventory utilizing Volser IDs or bar code labels will more than double your disposal cost. Whether this is necessary is an internal data security question. Our handling and manifesting process for bulk inventory control will establish a “chain of possession” audit trail that will legally prove destruction.

Final Tape Disposal
There is no recycling value to old magnetic tape. Anyone claiming to recycle old tapes is in fact reusing them. Not that this is bad if you are comfortable with the possibility of your recorded information being exposed. Even if tape is reused it will eventually either be land filled or incinerated. Your best disposal alternative is that it be done with a licensed recycling facility that provides a legally valid environmental compliance document for the final disposal.

Secure Tape Shredding versus Incineration
The secure tape shredding process includes strict individual tape chain of possession handling practices through the entire destruction cycle which includes data destruction certification.  Incineration is a bulk process that normally occurs in a public waste to energy facility.  The tapes are weighed as a bulk waste and dumped into large furnace feeding areas and intermingled with other waste.  The disposal documentation is not specific to the tape media and there is no security certification provided by the waste to energy facility.

Minimum Charges Apply

• Plant based shredding- $50.00 plus shipping
• On Site Degaussing- $150.00 plus travel cost
• On Site Shredding- $250.00 plus travel cost