Key takeaways

  • IT decommissioning is the physical removal of retired IT equipment: disconnecting, unracking, handling, preparing for removal or handover, and clearing racks.
  • It is not building demolition and not full data-centre decommissioning.
  • Data destruction and recycling are handled through a partner, not by the engineers doing the removal.
  • The job is done to your list. Your team shuts systems down first.

Servers do not retire themselves. Once a system has been migrated and switched off, it is still sitting in a rack, drawing space and, in a colocation facility, incurring charges. Someone has to disconnect it, take it out and move it on. That physical job is IT decommissioning.

A working definition

IT decommissioning is the hands-on removal of retired servers, switches, storage and other IT equipment from the racks they are in. An engineer attends, disconnects the equipment on your list, unracks it, handles it with care, prepares it for removal or handover, and leaves the rack clear.

It is deliberately narrow. The wider process of retiring IT has logical steps (moving data, shutting systems down) and disposal steps (destroying data, recycling). The physical removal is the part in the middle.

What the work covers

  • Disconnection. Power and network cabling disconnected from the equipment on your list, in the order you set.
  • Unracking. Servers, switches and storage unmounted and taken out of the rack, with rails removed where they are going too.
  • Handling. Equipment packed and moved carefully, with each item recorded by serial number against the box it goes into.
  • Preparing for removal or handover. Kit staged, labelled and matched to a manifest, ready for a haulier, a warehouse or a partner.
  • Clearing racks. Cabling, rails and anything not staying taken out, so the cabinet is empty for handback or reuse.

DACPROS provides this as its IT decommissioning service.

What it is not

IT decommissioning is not building demolition, and it is not full data-centre decommissioning. It does not include stripping out a facility’s power, cooling or fire suppression, or closing a site. It also does not include data destruction or recycling, which are handled through a partner.

Where data destruction and recycling fit

Retired equipment usually still holds data, and eventually needs to be disposed of or recycled. Those steps are specialist work, handled through a partner rather than by the engineer removing the kit.

In practice that means the engineer’s job ends at handover. Equipment is prepared, recorded and passed to wherever you have decided it goes, whether that is your own warehouse or the destruction and recycling partner. Any destruction or recycling records come from that partner, so ask them for what you need. For more on the handover, see handing equipment to a data destruction and recycling partner.

Who does what

A decommission goes smoothly when the split is clear:

  • You decide what is retiring and confirm the list.
  • You shut systems down and deal with the data before anything is disconnected.
  • We do the physical work to the list: disconnect, unrack, handle, prepare, clear.
  • A partner handles data destruction and recycling.

The 300-server project in our London colocation case study worked this way. The client’s remote team owned the data side, and our engineers supplied the hands and the record.

Next steps

If you are not sure whether your project is IT decommissioning or something larger, read where the line sits between IT and data centre decommissioning. When you are ready to scope it, tell us what is in the racks.