What s on Your Storage Facility Checklist? by Michelle Carty

As my fianc and I are going through the dreaded task of searching for an apartment in Boston, I can't help but think about records management. You may be asking yourself: What on Earth do those two things have in common? Well, besides dominating most of my thoughts these days, both really require checklists. Does this apartment unit have a dishwasher? Check. Is it located in a good neighborhood? Check. Are our future neighbors going to be keeping us up late at night blasting music? No check. Moving on then this apartment is where we are going to start our married life together, so it better meet our criteria!

In the same way, when it comes to deciding where your important records are going to live, you should really be creating a storage facility checklist. Simple as it may sound, creating a storage facility checklist allows you to wipe the slate clean of old missteps and make sure that your records are preserved in the optimal environment where they are both secure and accessible. The basement may serve a purpose for unused equipment, but its document storage days are over.

The modern storage facility is more than just a physical structure. Besides four walls and a lock, the physical features available today exist to ease every possible security concern. With natural disasters dominating headlines in recent years, storing your files in an environmentally secure, temperature-controlled facility is essential. Of course, storms aren't the only threat to business information substandard storage environments like self-storage units or trailers are susceptible to contamination and can easily damage your records. Plus, when your records are stored offsite and managed by experts, you can be sure that a fire detection and suppression system will extinguish sparks that, while unlikely, are not completely out of the realm of possibility.

As seen in my apartment checklist example, your checklist shouldn't end at physical features because often intangibles like service level can be far more important in making your requirements list for offsite storage. When your records are in the hands of a dedicated staff of records specialists, you know your information is safe, but never far from reach. This, combined with user access technology, means you retain full control and visibility of who accesses which records; offsite information is never really out of sight.

Lastly, and this is important, remember that that your costs won't skyrocket every time a location scores a check on your list. In fact, the costs of storing the same information in-house can be much higher once you factor in space, personnel, utilities and other resources. Just as we are on our apartment hunt, when it comes to protecting data and systems that are vital to your business operations, be high demanding. Your storage facility is critical to your ability to properly manage and protect records.

LINK:	http://blog.ironmountain.com/2013/service-lines/records-management-and...
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