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The
Only Acceptable Test Standards
DATA
PROTECTION PRODUCTS
The minimum industry standard
for data protection is a product with a 1 hour VDMA
certificate.
Most insurance companies now require the higher 2 hour VDMA 24991
certificate S 120 DIS.
The
modern, VDMA passed products have been designed to protect
data during the “soak out” period that any cabinet will
expose data to in a fire. A
data cabinet by its very construction will store a large amount of
heat from a fire. This
stored energy will continue to heat the cabinet's interior and
contents long after the fire has been extinguished. Typically the interior temperature of a data cabinet will
peak 6 to 8 hours after a fire has been extinguished.
The VDMA test monitors the internal temperatures of
the data cabinet until full cooling has occurred.
Magnetic
media must be kept below 55º C or complete and total data
corruption will occur.
The
older, now obsolete, test standards stop recording the
temperature inside the cabinet at the end of the fire test heating
period. For example, a
1 hour rated cabinet with an older test certificate is removed from the kiln at
the end of the 1 hour heating period, then all temperature
measurement ceases and the cabinet is rapidly cooled with
water. The test data media and measuring instruments are then
removed.
This is not comparable with the events of a real fire.
The
VDMA test monitors the internal temperatures of the data
cabinet until complete and full cooling has occurred. This
ensures that a cabinet with a modern VDMA certificate
actually protects your data for stated time of heating in a fire
and does not then let you down during the subsequent soak out
period.
A cabinet will be left
untouched in a fired building until the fire brigade have
completed the extinguishing, making safe and investigation of the
fire. This
time delay before you have access to your cabinet and its contents
must be taken into account. It
is therefore paramount that any data cabinet purchased have the
minimum 1 hour VDMA rating. Anything less is false
economy.
PAPER
PROTECTION PRODUCTS
When
considering a paper protection product the same rules always apply
if anywhere near complete protection is required,
i.e. VDMA - S60 P and S120 P
certificates.
Paper is quite robust
when compared to data as it will withstand
170º C before gradual discolouration.
If discolouration of the documents is acceptable then products
with the Swedish National Testing Institute's (Nordtest) NT 017
FIRE - 60 P and 120 P
certificates offer good paper protection.
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