Petroc Taylor
Research expert covering global developments in the use of data
Iron Mountain - statistics & facts
From presidential archives to pop music recordings, the information management company Iron Mountain has stored a staggering array of physical objects and digital data. The firm was founded by Herman Knaust, who in the 1930s began using a former iron ore mine to farm mushrooms. Iron Mountain was born in the 1950s, when Knaust converted the space in Kingston, New York into a corporate data storage facility, with demand for secure storage surging amid Cold War threats. The company’s core business proposition remains the same to this day – offering the safe storage and archiving of sensitive data - though the firm has since expanded to provide digital document management as well as physical. Iron Mountain’s ability to adapt alongside digital transformation has seen its revenue surge in recent years, with almost 5.5 billion U.S. dollars generated in 2023.
In growing its digital infrastructure presence, Iron Mountain has sought to secure its position as a dependable partner for businesses navigating digital transformation. However, the firm's market standing remains contingent on its security credentials, thus necessitating continued cybersecurity investment as online threats evolve.
Iron Mountain looks to grow its data center portfolio
Iron Mountain maintains three business segments. The Records and Information Management (RIM) segment is the largest, accounting for an 85 percent share of global revenue in 2023. The segment comprises the company’s core document management business, which involves the provision of services at all stages of the document lifecycle, including collection, handling, digitization, and shredding. In 2023, around 3.6 billion U.S. dollars was attributed to records management, while information destruction accounted for a further 500 million U.S. dollars. The firm’s second largest segment is its data center business, which launched in 2013 to offer colocation and hyperscale services to global enterprise clients, with an emphasis on the protection of critical business assets.Cybersecurity concerns are paramount
Iron Mountain has had to face a range of challenges amid its growing presence in the digital sphere. High on the agenda is sustainability, with data center cooling and maintenance demanding significant energy use. As such, Iron Mountain has run its data center operations with entirely renewable energy since 2017 and has worked to increase the share of renewable energy powering its wider operations. A second challenge is security. While the company found initial success guarding against nuclear threats, it now faces significant exposure to cyberattacks, with global businesses particularly concerned by threats to financial and customer data. In response, Iron Mountain has detailed range of measures to assure clients, including a cyber security incident response plan (CSIRP).In growing its digital infrastructure presence, Iron Mountain has sought to secure its position as a dependable partner for businesses navigating digital transformation. However, the firm's market standing remains contingent on its security credentials, thus necessitating continued cybersecurity investment as online threats evolve.
