Many Southwark businesses work from serviced offices and coworking floors around London Bridge, Bankside, Borough and Bermondsey. They are easy to move into, and just as easy to leave without thinking about data. When the move-out date arrives, the question is simple: which devices hold your information, who owns them, and what has to happen to them before you hand back the keys?
Why leaving a serviced office is different
In a conventional lease you usually own or lease all the IT in the building, so the clear-out is your job from start to finish. In a serviced office the line is blurred. Some equipment is yours: laptops, desktops, a small server or NAS in a cupboard, external drives, phones. Some belongs to the operator: shared printers and multifunction copiers, the Wi-Fi and network, door entry and meeting-room screens. Some may be leased from a third party and due back to them.
Under UK GDPR, your business remains responsible for keeping the personal data it controls secure, including when equipment leaves your hands. Handing over a drawer of old drives to a building manager, or leaving a PC under a desk for the next tenant, does not move that responsibility to anyone else. Sorting the devices into those three groups early makes the rest of the move far simpler.
Start with a list, not a skip
A few weeks before the move-out date, walk the space with whoever looks after your IT and write down every device that could hold data. For each one, note:
- what it is, with make, model and serial number;
- who owns it: your business, the operator or a leasing company;
- whether it is moving with you, being reused elsewhere, going back to a lessor or being retired;
- whether it contains a hard drive, an SSD, a memory card or built-in storage.
Look beyond the obvious. Drives that were swapped out of laptops years ago tend to end up in desk drawers. Old phones sit in a box in the stationery cupboard. A NAS used for backups may be on a shelf nobody has looked at since it was set up. USB sticks and portable drives that staff have used to move files between sites are easy to forget, and they often hold the most sensitive material of all.
Your own equipment
For devices you own, the decision is between erasing them so they can be reused or sold, and destroying the storage so it can never be read again. Equipment moving with you to the new office needs no special treatment, but anything that is being retired should be dealt with before it leaves your control.
Laptops and desktops that still have value can be erased with certified software, which overwrites the data and records the result. Drives that have failed, that held especially sensitive data, or that you simply do not want to keep, are better destroyed. Our guide to wiping, degaussing and shredding explains which method suits hard drives, SSDs and phones. Whichever you choose, ask for a certificate that lists each device by serial number, so you can tick it off against your list. For collection and disposal of retired drives, see hard drive disposal and recycling in Southwark.
Shared printers and copiers
Many office multifunction printers have a hard drive or flash storage that keeps copies of scanned, copied and printed documents. In a serviced office the printer usually belongs to the operator or its supplier, so you cannot simply remove the drive. You can, however, ask questions before you leave:
- Does the device store job data, and is it encrypted or overwritten automatically?
- Were any scan-to-folder or scan-to-email settings created for your business, and can they be removed?
- What happens to the stored data when the operator replaces or returns the machine?
Get the answers in writing if you can. If your firm handles confidential client files, your own policies may require more than a verbal assurance.
Leased laptops and equipment
Leased equipment is usually returned to the leasing company at the end of the agreement, and the lease terms may say what condition it must be in. Returning a laptop with the data still on it means trusting another organisation with information you are responsible for. Check the agreement before the move. Some lessors accept erased devices with an erasure report; others will let you keep and destroy the drive and pay for a replacement. Either way, arrange it before the return date, not on the last afternoon.
Leave enough time
Serviced office agreements often end on a fixed date, and the space may be cleaned and re-let quickly afterwards. That leaves little room for a forgotten server or a box of drives. A sensible order is:
- finish the device list and decide what is moving, returning or being retired;
- check that the data you need has been copied to the new systems or to cloud storage;
- book the erasure or destruction of retired devices for a date before the move;
- keep the certificates with your move records and your asset register.
The certificate is the evidence that each device was dealt with. Before you file it, check that every serial number on your list appears on it, and chase any that are missing while the details are still fresh.
Close to home
Our facility is at 80 Willow Walk in Bermondsey, so for businesses leaving serviced offices in SE1 and the rest of the borough, drives do not travel far. We use government-approved methods, issue a certificate of destruction for every job, and are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ZA060744). Find out more about data destruction in Southwark.
To arrange erasure or destruction before your move-out date, call 020 7064 4996 or book a collection.