Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) recently released a seven-minute video to illustrate how serious it is about security and data protection at its data centers. As reported by Computerworld, the location and status of hard disk drives (HDD) used by its custom servers are "rigorously tracked." More importantly, failed HDDs are not simply discarded, but are put through a multi-step process to ensure that they are destroyed prior to their being sent to recycling centers.

As observed in the video, the first step sees a steel piston being pushed through the center of the drive, crushing it down the middle and deforming the internal data platters. These ruined HDDs are then put through a powerful shredder that literally mangles the drives into many disparate pieces of scrap metal.

Interestingly, the narrator in the video did note that an "extra backup" of the data is maintained on tape drives for data redundancy--which was what helped the company avoid a potential fiasco during a Gmail crash two months ago. The video doesn't mention if the data stored on the tape drives are eventually wiped however. You can watch the video here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld

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