How a software company exited two colocation sites four days early
A large enterprise software company needed to remove its equipment from 95 provider cabinets across two states. Missing either surrender date would trigger a full month at twice the regular rent.
ITAMG worked both sites in parallel and moved 24 complete GPU nodes directly into recovery instead of storage. Both providers accepted the cage return condition four days early.
The engagement produced $2,915,410 in client recovery against $222,180 in project costs. It also avoided $320,700 in doubled rent.
$2.9M client recovery
$2,915,410 credited against $222,180 in project costs.
9 days on site
Parallel crews completed the work at both facilities.
4 days early
Both providers accepted the contracted return condition.
$320,700 in rent avoided
No holdover rent was billed under either agreement.
Meet both colocation surrender dates before holdover billing began
| Project detail | Engagement record |
|---|---|
| Client profile | A large private B2B enterprise software company |
| Footprint | Two leased colocation footprints in the eastern United States, totaling 95 provider cabinets |
| Assignment | Remove client-owned equipment and meet the defined return condition at both sites |
| Trigger | The cloud migration was complete, the colocation agreements were not renewed, and the GPU training cluster was retired |
| Approvals | The VP of Infrastructure signed off, the CFO approved recovery, and the CISO approved the sanitization method |
| Disclosure basis | One completed engagement. Client identity and exact dates are withheld under contract. Financial figures are historical values from the engagement. |
| Contract exposure | Missing either surrender date triggered a full month at twice the regular rent, with a defined return condition at each site |
The original plan delayed GPU disposition by five months
The cloud migration was complete, but 24 idle GPU training nodes with 192 accelerators were scheduled for five months of storage before disposition.
ITAMG recommended removing them with the rest of the fleet and moving the complete systems directly into recovery while their configurations remained intact.
The client approved the change, and the GPU nodes moved to the front of the removal schedule.
The constraints that controlled the two-site exit
Holdover rent did not prorate
Each agreement imposed a full month at twice the regular rent for a missed date. If both sites missed, the combined exposure was $320,700.
Return tasks belonged to three parties
The contracts defined return condition, but the existing scope did not assign each task to the client, ITAMG or the facility.
ITAMG would disconnect client-owned equipment from network and rack power, remove each device with its rail kit and maintain documented custody.
Provider cabinets and facility cabling would remain. Each facility controlled its cross-connect releases. Those boundaries had to be resolved before the surrender walk.
Cross-connect releases ran through facility queues
Each of the 63 releases required a ticket, facility lead time and written confirmation. The two sites used separate ticketing systems and queues.
Lease returns were mixed with owned assets
Eighty-eight assets under an operating lease were installed in the same cabinets as client-owned hardware. The lease required return in a specified condition.
The lease returns had to be segregated during removal and sent to the leasing company, so they were excluded from client recovery.
GPU recovery depended on complete-system condition
The 24 nodes holding 192 accelerators were the largest recovery line. Keeping the baseboards and interconnect hardware intact allowed the nodes to be sold as complete GPU systems.
From contract review to verified settlement
Convert both contracts into one control plan
ITAMG reviewed both agreements for return condition, notice requirements and holdover billing.
The site walk recorded every readable identifier across 95 cabinets. Inaccessible serial plates were flagged for capture during de-racking, and leased assets were marked at the rail.
Cross-connect releases were scheduled against each facility's ticket lead time.
Run both sites in parallel
Separate crews worked to one schedule. The complete GPU nodes were de-racked and packed within the first 48 hours, earlier than originally planned.
The 6,880 drives were matched to serial records and held under documented custody for the client-approved sanitization process.
The 88 leased assets were segregated during removal and returned to the leasing company.
Close the provider dependencies
Crews disconnected client equipment from network and rack power, removed each device with its rail kit and left the provider cabinets and facility cabling in place.
ITAMG tracked all 63 facility-managed cross-connect releases to written confirmation. Each cage was then walked against its return clause.
Sanitize, test and settle
The 24 GPU nodes were tested, graded and sold as complete systems. Their drives were excluded from the node values and recorded on the separate drive-recovery line.
All 6,880 drives were sanitized, verified, recorded by serial number and sold under the client-approved process.
ITAMG tested and graded the remaining recovery inventory, sold the accepted equipment and recovered saleable parts from 205 chassis that were not sold whole.
Residual material moved through ITAMG's R2v3-certified operations with the downstream chain documented.
The same project manager controlled the contract checklist and both site schedules, then tracked provider acceptance through signed surrender.
Both providers accepted the return condition four days early
Client recovery, project cost and net cash
Client recovery is the amount ITAMG paid or credited to the client for accepted assets based on secondary-market values at the time of the engagement. It is not ITAMG's downstream sale price.
Project cost totals the service charges listed below. Net cash to the client equals client recovery less project cost. Avoided rent is reported separately.
Client recovery of $2,915,410 less $222,180 in project costs left $2,693,230 in net cash to the client. The separate $320,700 in avoided holdover rent is not included.
Recovery settlement by category
Figure 4 reconciles accepted quantities to the $2,915,410 credited to the client. Drives appear on a separate line, so complete-system and storage-equipment values exclude drive value.
| Accepted equipment | Settlement basis | Client recovery |
|---|---|---|
| GPU compute | 24 complete nodes with 192 A100 80GB SXM4 accelerators. Baseboards and interconnect hardware remained intact. Client recovery averaged $44,000 per node. | $1,056,000 |
| Complete servers | 780 accepted units, including Dell PowerEdge R750 and R740, HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10, and Cisco UCS C240 M6 and C220 M5 rack servers. Client recovery averaged $980 per unit. | $764,400 |
| Drives | 6,880 enterprise SATA/SAS SSDs, NVMe SSDs and nearline SAS hard drives, sanitized, verified and sold under the approved process aligned to NIST SP 800-88. Client recovery averaged $93 per drive. | $639,840 |
| Storage equipment | 191 all-flash arrays, storage controllers and expansion shelves from Pure Storage, Dell EMC and NetApp, sold without drives. Client recovery averaged $1,050 per unit. | $200,550 |
| Network equipment | 254 Cisco Nexus leaf and spine switches, Arista 25G leaf switches, and F5 load balancers. Client recovery averaged $600 per unit. | $152,400 |
| Recovered parts | Processors, memory, power supplies, RAID controllers and network cards from 205 Dell, HPE and Supermicro chassis. Installed DDR4 memory carried most of the value. Client recovery averaged $410 per chassis. | $84,050 |
| Power, KVM and appliances | 158 rack power units, console devices and purpose-built appliances. Client recovery averaged $115 per unit. | $18,170 |
| Total client recovery | 1,612 accepted recovery assets, with 6,880 drives listed separately | $2,915,410 |
Project cost by service
The fixed project cost covered on-site labor, secure transport, sanitization, asset processing, cage clearing, surrender coordination and recycling.
The 88 lease returns were included in the fixed scope and total project cost.
| Cost category | What it covered | Project cost |
|---|---|---|
| On-site labor and removal | 126 crew days across two sites worked in parallel | $103,300 |
| Secure transport | 15 loads routed for chain-of-custody controls, site access, carrier capacity and cost | $36,000 |
| Sanitization and verification | 6,880 drives sanitized, verified and recorded by serial number under the approved process aligned to NIST SP 800-88 | $31,000 |
| Asset processing and testing | 1,612 assets received, audited, tested and reported line by line at $15 per asset | $24,180 |
| Cage clearing and surrender | Rail-kit removal, cage sweep, tracking 63 facility-managed cross-connect releases to written confirmation, both surrender walks and the surrender documentation package | $18,000 |
| Recycling | Fixed charge for residual chassis and components after parts recovery, handled through ITAMG's R2v3-certified operations. No media was shredded. | $9,700 |
| Total project cost | Fixed project-cost quote for both sites | $222,180 |
The approved sanitization method preserved the resale path for all 6,880 drives while meeting the client's data-security requirement.
After verification, the drives were recorded by serial number and sold. Their settlement line credited $639,840 to the client.
Closeout records for assets, custody and site surrender
| Document | What the record contains |
|---|---|
| Certificate of sanitization, one per drive (6,880) | Sanitization method, verification result and date recorded against each drive serial number |
| Chain-of-custody records (15) | Custody recorded at each handoff for all 15 secure transport loads across both sites |
| Cross-connect release confirmations (63) | Written facility confirmation for all 63 facility-managed releases |
| Facility surrender acceptances (2) | Signed acceptance of the return condition from each colocation provider |
| Settlement and client-recovery report | Client recovery reconciled by equipment category, including the 24 complete GPU nodes |
| Recycling and diversion reports | Residual material and the documented downstream chain through ITAMG's R2v3-certified operations |
| Lease-return manifest (88) | Asset identifiers and return condition for the 88 assets sent to the leasing company |
| Final reconciliation | 1,700 assets closed: 1,612 recovery assets and 88 lease returns |
ITAMG services for data center exits
Each service is scoped to the approved controls, documentation and disposition path.
This engagement used data center decommissioning and generated recovery from servers and storage and network equipment.
Residual material moved through server recycling.
Data Destruction
Sanitization and media destruction using NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2-aligned methods, with media identifiers documented.
Learn moreIT Asset Disposition
Enterprise hardware disposition with custody recorded at each handoff.
Learn moreSell Used IT Equipment
Client recovery for accepted servers, storage and networking hardware.
Learn moreComputer Recycling
Recycling through ITAMG's R2v3-certified operations, with downstream handling documented.
Learn moreIndependent company ratings for ITAMG
Plan a data center exit
Working toward a colocation surrender date?
ITAMG provides nationwide service. Each fixed project-cost quote defines the removal plan and sanitization method. Accepted equipment is valued against secondary-market conditions.
About ITAMG
Since 1999, IT Asset Management Group has provided IT asset disposition and data center decommissioning services.
ITAMG is certified to R2v3, NAID AAA and RIOS. Its media-sanitization processes align to NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2, and its service coverage extends across all 50 states.
Project documentation is matched to the approved scope and can include custody, sanitization or destruction, settlement, client-recovery and final reconciliation records.
www.itamg.com · +1 877.625.4872