Case studies
Work we have done, described the way the records describe it.
Four on-site engagements, anonymised at the customer’s preference. The numbers below are what those organisations recorded and told us at the time, not rates we guarantee. What every device has in common is that destruction was completed before it moved.
The only company we can find anywhere in the world that warrants the outcome and guarantees permanent, irretrievable data destruction.
A new standard nobody has yet been able to match, backed by £10 million of professional indemnity insurance.
Healthcare
An NHS trust, carrying a backlog it had no staff to clear
The situation
The trust had been running a DSS Mobile unit since 2023 and its own IT team was managing data-bearing devices with it. Then several key people left, the posts went unfilled, and the capacity to process assets dropped away. A backlog of PCs and laptops built up at the same time as a 700-laptop replacement rollout added several hundred more devices to the queue.
A backlog of data-bearing equipment is not a storage problem. Every device in it still holds live data, still sits inside the trust’s accountability, and cannot be redeployed or retired until somebody can say what happened to the data on it.
What we did
- Our engineers attended site and ran the work alongside the trust’s own team rather than adding to their workload
- Destruction was carried out on the premises, so no device left the trust’s control with data on it
- Hundreds of PCs and laptops were processed, with a certificate issued for each device
- The IT leadership was able to keep recruiting without the asset position getting worse while they did
What they were left holding
- The backlog cleared in a few days rather than over the months recruitment would have taken
- A certificate per device, so the trust could answer about any individual machine rather than about a batch
- Equipment released for redeployment or disposal, and the storage and depreciation cost of holding it ended
“Having Data Safe Solutions on-site to assist with our IT backlog was a game-changer. Their team worked seamlessly with our existing resources to quickly and securely process a large number of devices. This allowed us to maintain compliance, reduce pressure on our current staff, and focus on recruiting the team members we need. We’d recommend their on-site support to any healthcare organization facing similar challenges.”
IT leadership, NHS trust
Local government
A large local authority in Manchester, 1,200 devices, no capacity
The situation
The authority had more than 1,200 laptops and systems waiting for secure destruction before they could be retired or resold, and an IT department without the staff capacity to process them alongside normal operations. The assets were depreciating while they sat.
The conventional route would have meant transporting data-bearing devices off site to a disposal partner, which moves live data out of the authority’s control before anything has been proven about it, and hands the valuation of the equipment to somebody else after it has already gone.
What we did
- Destruction completed on the authority’s own premises, with no internal staff time required
- All 1,200 or more devices processed by the Smart Wipe Engine, with the method determined per device
- A certificate and audit record for each device, referencing NIST SP 800-88
- Devices left the authority already cleared, so they could be resold with the authority in control of the valuation
What they were left holding
- No device left the premises holding recoverable data, which removes the transport exposure entirely rather than managing it
- A full audit trail and a certificate per device
- The authority reported recovering several thousand pounds by reselling equipment it retained control of, rather than accepting a valuation after the fact
“The Data Safe Solutions team handled everything seamlessly. Their on-site service meant our data was destroyed before devices ever left our control, significantly reducing the risk of a data breach. We didn’t have to jump through the hoops and onerous tasks of selecting an appropriate ITAD because everything was completed on-site. Additionally, we were not left at the mercy of an ITAD equipment valuation after the equipment had left our control, ensuring we retained full financial oversight. We also recovered many thousands of pounds from our IT assets. This is the future of secure data disposal.”
IT lead, local authority
Financial services
A global financial services firm bringing destruction in house
The situation
The firm had decided to bring secure destruction in house, bought a DSS Mobile unit and set about training its own IT staff to run it. Two things stood in the way before they could take the process over: the team needed to be trained on the equipment, and there was already a backlog of several hundred PCs and laptops waiting.
The backlog mattered more than usual because the firm intended to donate the equipment to local charities. Giving a working laptop to a community organisation is only defensible if you can say what happened to the data that was on it.
What we did
- On-site training delivered at their offices, hands on, so the team could run the process themselves afterwards
- The existing backlog cleared by our engineers in a single day while the training ran
- A certificate issued for every device before any of it was released
What they were left holding
- An internal capability, with their own staff running the engine on their own site from that point on
- Documented destruction for every donated device, so the donation carried evidence rather than an assumption
- Equipment in the hands of local causes instead of in a shredder
“Data Safe Solutions didn’t just clear our IT backlog, they gave us the confidence to donate our equipment to local good causes knowing the data had been completely vaporized. Their on-site training and high-speed processing equipped our team with the tools and knowledge needed to maintain compliance, security, and efficiency. We’d recommend their support to any organization transitioning to internal data destruction.”
IT management, global financial services firm
Entertainment
A global gaming and betting operator, destroying assets it did not need to destroy
The situation
The operator’s standard procedure for retiring equipment was to have IT staff physically remove every data-bearing component from each machine and then destroy it on site. It worked, in the sense that a shredded drive holds nothing. It cost them twice over.
Each device took a member of staff more than half an hour to strip. And destroying the drive wrote off the machine it came out of, because a laptop without its storage is worth very little. They were paying skilled people to reduce the value of their own assets, because that was the only way they could be sure.
What we did
- No manual stripping. The devices were processed intact, with storage in place
- The Smart Wipe Engine determined the method for each individual drive and executed it on the device
- Destruction completed on the premises before any hardware moved
- A certificate and audit record per device
What they were left holding
- Staff time on each device fell from more than thirty minutes to close to nothing, which is what the operator measured against their own previous procedure
- Machines stayed whole, so they could be resold or redeployed instead of written off
- The certainty they had been buying with a shredder, without paying for it in asset value
“Switching to Data Safe Solutions completely changed how we handle IT asset disposal. Previously, our IT staff had to manually remove and physically destroy data-bearing devices, which was time-consuming and eliminated any asset resale value. Their on-site vaporisation process erased data securely in seconds, without requiring manual intervention, allowing us to maintain compliance while recovering value from our IT assets. This is the future of secure data destruction in the gaming industry.”
IT operations, global gaming and betting operator
What these have in common
Every one of them turns on the same thing
Destruction was completed before the device moved, and a certificate was issued for each individual device rather than for a consignment.
That is the part worth taking from these. The backlogs, the staff time and the resale value are real and they are what those organisations noticed first, but they are consequences. The thing underneath is that at no point did a machine leave a building carrying data that nobody could account for.
Speed, staff time, cost and resale value depend on the assets, their condition and how the work is organised, so the figures above are what those organisations recorded on their own equipment rather than rates we guarantee. The outcome is the part we guarantee, and it is in the licence.
How on-site destruction works → Read the licence → Talk to us →