Powering AI expansion through supply chain resilience
Customer Success Stories
A global hyperscale leader partnered with Iron Mountain to navigate a critical operational paradox: aggressively clearing data centre floor space for incoming AI infrastructure while simultaneously maintaining a massive footprint of legacy hardware amidst global part shortages.
The challenge: AI expansion vs. supply chain fragility
As one of the world’s largest hyperscalers, the client faced a dual-threat to their growth that required a move beyond traditional disposal:
The approach: The circular “flywheel” model
Iron Mountain implemented a customised framework designed to remove the operational burden from the client’s internal teams through two strategic pillars:
1. Embedded “badged” technicians
- On-site intelligence: Iron Mountain deployed full-time, badged technicians who work inside the client’s data centres. Using client-issued devices and operating directly on the client’s network, these teams provided real-time response and immediate security compliance.
- Immediate physical sanitisation: To eliminate data leakage risks, failed drives were physically crushed on-site using piston-driven destruction tools before any material left the facility.
2. Solving fragility through harvesting & consulting
- Strategic parts harvesting: To mitigate shortages, technicians identified and harvested critical spares from decommissioned racks. These parts were tested and returned to the client’s internal inventory, creating a circular flywheel keeping legacy infrastructure alive without manufacturer support.
- Proactive inventory consulting: Iron Mountain identified “dead” stock—assets sitting in storage for 6+ years—and proactively initiated remarketing. This cleared the physical “logjam” off the data centre floor, and directly accelerated the client’s AI expansion.
The business outcome: global resilience & elite satisfaction
The result was a highly mature, self-sustaining ecosystem that prioritised supply chain stability over simple disposal.
- Elite Net Promoter Score (NPS): The programme maintained an NPS of 83, reflecting deep trust and operational excellence that far exceeds industry averages.
- Supply Chain Resilience: By harvesting legacy components, Iron Mountain successfully mitigated “critical spare shortages,” ensuring the client could maintain older data halls even as manufacturers stop producing parts.
- Zero-out-of-pocket budgeting: The entire global programme—labor, transportation, and logistics—was funded through a revenue-share model. The client never paid an invoice; costs were deducted from remarketing proceeds.
- Massive operational scale: Iron Mountain managed this footprint across North America and Europe, handling everything from local “shredder rollouts” to complex global e-waste management.
The bottom line
Iron Mountain transformed asset lifecycle management into a strategic supply chain advantage. The harvest of legacy parts and strategic consultation on stagnant inventory delivered the ‘operational oxygen’ necessary for the client’s massive AI infrastructure pivot.