Stadtsparkasse München – A second life for outdated devices with Bechtle Remarketing

Stadtsparkasse München – A second life for outdated devices with Bechtle Circular IT.

At the start of 2022, Stadtsparkasse München entrusted its data processing along with some of its data processing services to an in-house service provider, consolidating two data centres with sensitive data and flawless hardware. Bechtle Circular IT estimated the residual value, presented a data protection-compliant solution for how to handle sensitive data and disassembled the server systems and blade chassis with internal blade servers. After the data has been erased in accordance with BSI standards, the great majority of the hardware was resold with Bechtle Circular IT paying the residual value back to Stadtsparkasse München.

Project details.

Services

Professional Services

Industry

Financial / Insurance

Company size

> 1,500 employees

Challenge.

Stadtsparkasse München (SSKM) is the largest savings bank in Bavaria and the fourth-largest in Germany. In collaboration with its Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe partners (the largest finance association in Germany), it provides its customers with a full range of financial services, investment opportunities and financing options. Its partners include an in-house IT service provider that took over partial responsibility for Stadtsparkasse München’s data processing and data centre services. The two in-house operated data centres at different sites in Munich city were consolidated, but all servers, drives and enclosures contained within were still in perfect working order. It would have been a shame to simply scrap them, however, the storage media contained sensitive data which had to be erased in accordance with extremely stringent compliance regulations. SSKM therefore waned to find out if their redundant hardware had any residual value and if yes, how much it was plus how a marketer would handle the hardware and its sensitive data. As a long-term partner of Stadtsparkasse München as well as hardware supplier, Bechtle put together an offer that covered remarketing with certified, BSI-compliant data erasure plus the disassembly of hardware as an extra service.

After shutting down and consolidating our two data centres, we were faced with the question of what to do with the hardware that was still in excellent condition. Our focus was on determining the market-based residual value, ensuring data were wiped in compliance with BSI standards and that the hardware could be given a new lease of life in a way that had as little impact on resources as possible. That’s where Bechtle Remarketing came in—quickly and expertly alleviating our concerns. We were incredibly impressed by the whole logistical process with Bechtle removing the hardware and precisely and professionally documenting every step. Bechtle Remarketing didn’t leave any stone unturned, paving the way for a simple handover of documentation to our compliance department. It really couldn’t have gone much better.

Andreas Weber, System Administrator, Stadtsparkasse München

Solution.

A total of 202 assets, i.e. drives, servers, hardware without drives, etc. had to be removed and securely transported before being wiped, inventorised and then reused as fully-functional devices. Bechtle Remarketing, as a subsidiary of Bechtle, specialises in the environmentally-friendly sale of used IT. The company calculated the residual value based on demand for used IT on its own remarketing e-commerce platform and on the Bechtle system house network. The SSKM accepted the offer and two Bechtle technicians set to work disassembling the Munich-based hardware with the logistics coordinated exactly between the two. 152 servers replete with their drives were documented according to serial number and securely transported in 15 sealed pallet cages to Bechtle Remarketing, where up to 10,000 devices per week are processed and over 200,000 are stored in an area covering 5,300 m² specifically designed for purpose. A total of 347 hard drives were wiped multiple times in specially monitored rooms in full accordance with BSI standards, the compliance department and SSKM’s wishes. Just 62 drives could not be saved and were thus destroyed by Bechtle in accordance with DIN 66399, protection class 2, security level E-4. Once the process was complete, Stadtsparkasse München received proof that the devices had been destroyed plus documentation covering data media had been wiped and when. All wiped drives, blade servers and their chassis were put back on the market and sold by Bechtle.

Business benefits.

For the Stadtsparkasse München, Bechtle was its one-stop shop, buying back hardware that had been originally purchased from it and selling on a well-known manufacturer’s components that were still in excellent condition after some refurbishment. The result was SSKM didn’t have to concern themselves with the long-winded process of disposal, not only protecting the environment, but the company’s budget as well. Bechtle Remarketing was able to provide evidence of a positive CO₂ offset and handled everything from disassembly and BSI-completing data wiping to resale through its in-house network—an excellent way to protect resources and fulfil demand for IT components at a time of hardware shortages.