How long does an IT life last?

Lately, we’ve been seeing more and more company profiles (on LinkedIn, for example) saying,“Sustainability is in our corporate DNA.” What does such a thing actually mean? That employees have to work on 15-year-old computers?

Recently, as part of a capacity expansion, we received back a Silent Cube archive storage container from one of our first customers. This Cube is 14 years old. All the data on it was transferred to newer hardware without any problems (which was especially economically sensible). The last task left: destroying the original hard drives.

14 years old. Are you still using IT hardware from 14 years ago? Not just as a museum piece or “in case we still need it for…,” but truly productive, every day? In any case, my laptop no longer runs on Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard….

Sustainability has a lot to do with longevity. This is often overlooked in discussions about electric cars and the energy transition: the disposal of old equipment and the production of new appliances usually far outweigh higher energy consumption during use. Therefore, all necessary regulations usually apply only to new purchase or replacement. And so arguments like “but if everyone switches to electric cars right away…” are rather nonsensical.

Our client did not need to replace his 2009 Silent Cube. Even combined with the latest hardware – the just-introduced Silent Cube DS Pro and Head Unit Pro – this 2009 Silent Cube would still work extremely well. And thanks to Erasure Coding, Digital Audit and Disk Mix, he also does not have to worry about whether restoring individual data or all data will succeed.

More than 80% of our customers from 10 years ago still use our storage solutions. Without compatibility issues. Without fear of data loss. Sustainability is more than green power and good intentions. At FAST LTA, dedication to sustainability is also and especially reflected in product development.

With lasting greetings,

The Comex Team