Brass Valley LLC is an ITAD and IT Lifecycle management services company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It provides de-installation, data erasure, IT asset resale & recycling, and other allied services to Fortune 2000 companies globally. Since 2002, Brass Valley has served the data destruction needs of industries such as banking and finance, broadcasting, healthcare, retail, and pharmaceuticals. The company is deeply committed to environmental stewardship, data security, and protecting its customers from data leakage & non-compliance risks. Data erasure is critically relied upon by the company to attain secure and compliant wiping of hard drives, laptops, and Mac devices.
Business Need
The company was looking for data erasure software that could fulfil the following prime needs:
- Data Erasure along with hardware testing & diagnostics: The company needed a data erasure software tool with native ability to run diagnostic tests on hardware such as keyboard, webcam, battery, etc. It also wanted the software to perform basic diagnostic on the key components in laptops that had no hard drives, i.e., execute independent hardware tests without needing to run the drive erasure process. Hardware testing was the company’s crucial need to meet compliance with standards like e-Stewards and R2 and support its IT asset recovery service..
- Consolidated reports for erasure & hardware tests: Brass Valley expected the data erasure tool to generate a single, collated report for all the hard drives erased in a batch, recording their wiping status and other key details. In this tool, the company also wanted an added functionality that could allow fetching reports for just the hardware tests. Further, it wanted the data erasure software to export the diagnostics report data in CSV format and upload it to the company’s audit portal. Hardware test reports helped Brass Valley acquire a readymade checklist for e-Stewards and R2 compliance.
- Built-in asset tagging functionality: Asset tagging is another vital feature the company desired in the data erasure software. It needed a tool with inbuilt functionality to scan and capture IT asset tags and IDs of the devices before erasing them. Automated asset IT tagging was essential for recordkeeping of hardware assets lined up for erasure.
Challenges
The data erasure software earlier used by the company did not provide any kind of hardware testing capability, leading to a challenge in ascertaining the IT assets’ underlying state and residual value. Absence of integrated hardware diagnostic and test report data was hampering the necessary pre-requisites for attaining compliance with e-Stewards and R2 standards, which was a major requirement for Brass Valley.
Solution: Brass Valley contacted Stellar to evaluate BitRaser Drive Eraser software for key features such as erasure with hardware testing, report generation, and asset tagging. The company assessed BitRaser Drive Eraser Cloud Console variant for bulk drive erasure using PXE network boot wiping technology in order to erase up to 65,000 hard drives, PCs, and Mac systems simultaneously over the network.
Approach
BitRaser consultant understood Brass Valley’s business needs and advised them on the optimal solution best suited for wiping drives over network. The team engaged in a personalized manner, gathering real-time inputs from the client through live chat, phone, and email. Stellar team guided Brass Valley on the network setup and other technicalities necessary to deploy BitRaser Drive Eraser. The software was finally deployed on company’s service facility.
Benefits
- Native ability to diagnose the hardware: BitRaser Drive Eraser software allowed testing of IT assets, including the laptops without hard drives. It tested hardware components such as motherboard, memory, mouse, Bluetooth, webcam, battery, etc., providing an integrated solution for erasure and diagnosis.
- Comprehensive reports in portable formats: BitRaser generated detailed erasure reports and allowed exporting the data in a single CSV or XML file. It also allowed pulling the hardware test logs by simply booting the laptop without performing erasure. This capability supported the company’s compliance needs.
- Powerful cloud console for easy manageability: The cloud console variant empowered the company to execute remote erasure by creating users and managing license distribution via the Internet. The cloud module also enabled ready 24x7 access to a centralized repository of reports and certificates.
- Built-in asset tagging to support documentation: The software allowed recording the asset tags and IDs in the company’s asset management system, assisting the bookkeeping process for erased IT assets.
- Superior Consultancy & Technical support: From customer requirements gathering to consulting, deployment, and technical support, BitRaser team strived to deliver a personalized and “on-the-go” experience. These efforts were widely praised by the client.
- Seamless user interface for effortless experience: The software enabled an effortless user experience, allowing swift execution of tasks such as erasure, component testing, and reporting. It provided an easy method to export the reports from the main navigation.
