Abertillery-based Insurgo Media Services scooped the ‘Innovation of the Year’ award at the 2019 Storage Awards for its industry-disrupting ‘KIT’ tape media disposal technology, helping to keep large organisations’ data secure and reduce plastic waste.
At an awards ceremony hosted in London and attended by leaders of the data storage sector from across the globe, Wales-based Insurgo Media beat a shortlist of industry heavyweights to take home the title of innovators of the year for their KIT data disposal invention.
The company was shortlisted in six categories on the evening.
KIT – or Kills Information on Tape – is a unique tape media disposal method that is able to fully remove all data from redundant storage tapes, before allowing them to re-enter the market as certified tape media.
KIT was developed in-house by Insurgo’s tape media experts in Abertillery over a number of years and is now used by some of the largest organisations in the country, with more than 56 patents pending internationally. Organisations such as The Met Office already rely on KIT to dispose of many thousands of data storage tapes.
The invention is the only disposal method of its kind for a number of reasons.
Firstly, KIT is unique in its ability to remove all data from storage tapes. Other methods such as shredding or degaussing have inconsistent results and can often leave sensitive data still on tapes. This leaves organisations exposed should those tapes fall into the wrong hands.
In an economy where the importance of data protection is more prevalent than ever, as highlighted by the recent record fine handed to British Airways by the ICO, Insurgo offers its customers the only traceable, proven and guaranteed tape media erasure method on the market today.
The University of South Wales conducted research into the effectiveness of KIT, confirming that it is able to withstand data-recovery efforts from “Government-sponsored organisations using advanced techniques to mount all types of software and hardware attacks with unlimited time and resources to recover sanitised data.”
The Welsh firm is also tackling the important issue of reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill with its KIT tape media disposal technology. As the only tape disposal
method that allows wiped tapes to re-enter the market, Insurgo is helping to significantly reduce the number of redundant tapes that end up in landfill.
This means that KIT is the most secure and environmentally friendly tape media disposal method available to organisations, making it the obvious choice for any security-serious and environmentally-conscious company.
Speaking of the award win, Gavin Griffiths, managing director of Insurgo Media Services said: “We’re phenomenally proud to have brought such a well-recognised international innovation award home to Wales.
“Winning ‘Innovation of the Year’ at The Storage Awards is a huge testament to our entire team, their continued hard work, commitment to innovation and their hunger to strive for excellence.
“We’ve worked really hard to get KIT to where it is today; a proven and trusted data disposal method that is backed by independent research and relied upon by some of the best-known organisations in the world.
“We’ve invested heavily in research and development over the years and have built a world-class team right here in Wales. This award win is a chance to reflect on how far we have come and to further focus our efforts on pushing Insurgo even further in the future.”
