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KOM Partners with Dell to Feed One Million Hungry Children by Recycling Obsolete Storage Hardware
Ottawa, Canada – December 15, 2009 – KOM Networks™, world leading provider of storage management solutions for secure archiving compliant data protection and retention, today announced the Junk-A-Juke program. A unique program that will collect and recycle obsolete and legacy storage equipment and donate all the money generated from raw materials to Feed The Children. In exchange for the older equipment, KOM offers a new Dell Powered KOMpliance Archive with equal capacity and superior performance, a fully compliant enterprise class server and archive solution free-of-charge with a three year maintenance agreement. KOM’s goal is to collect and recycle enough hardware to feed one million children!
Working jointly with Dell’s OEM division, KOM developed their custom storage solution on the Dell PowerVault NX3000 NAS. “Dell OEM is a strategic supplier to KOM providing the platform of choice for the KOMpliance archive server and storage and at the same time delivering a global service coverage that few can match in this global economy,” said Taher Shaath, CEO at KOM Networks. “Teaming up with Dell OEM is a great benefit with the varying financial services that are available to help offset any costs associated with this program and minimize the impact on the customer’s bottom line.”
“We are proud to work with KOM Networks to help make this program a reality. The level of commitment and ambitious goals of this initiative are very commendable. Our mutual customers will benefit, the earth will benefit and most importantly the proceeds benefit a good cause,” said Rick Froehlich, vice president and general manager of Dell OEM Solutions.
The first system has already been donated from aptly named Angel Medical Center in Franklin, NC. “We already had plans to upgrade our current system and were impressed with KOM’s ability to help us easily migrate our data and meet our HIPAA compliance standards,” said Gary Hanold, director of information systems at Angel Medical. “Being able to bring in this highly regarded solution without additional cost and guarantee that our end-of-life jukebox doesn’t end up in a landfill is valuable. Feeding kids in a time when many families are struggling is invaluable.”
KOMpliance is a plug-and-play archive solution that is platform and application agnostic to easily integrate into any existing infrastructure. More than 10,000 of the world’s leading organizations use KOM solutions to protect, access and manage their data and meet their compliance standards. With this innovative program, not only is KOM making it effortless to responsibly discard obsolete hardware and help feed many of the twelve million American children who are today at risk of going hungry; but also lowering all financial barriers and making it easy and affordable to upgrade old data archive and storage technology to get compliant.
“Gartner’s market research indicates a healthy demand for active archiving solutions, and file-based archiving solutions are a fast growing segment of this market,” said Sheila Childs, Research Director with Gartner. “While file archiving technologies enable better management of storage growth and cost, an organization’s requirement to retain information for long periods of time often necessitates continued replacement of inefficient, antiquated and obsolete hardware to preserve data in readable formats.”
“When times are tough, businesses need to be more responsible in helping out where they can, so we tried to think about ways we could help. There are still large numbers of obsolete archive and storage devices being used,” said Kamel Shaath, CTO of KOM Networks. “Our free storage upgrade to KOMpliance will increase efficiency, protect data, and lower liability, risk and TCO; but the opportunity to protect our planet for future generations and feed hungry children today is our motivation. KOM will match the funds generated by the recycled hardware to help Feed The Children.”
KOM has partnered with Technology Conservation Group (TCG) to pick up and track each piece of equipment through destruction to ensure that nothing ends up in a landfill. TCG is an ISO registered recycler of electronic scrap and a member of NAID, the National Association for Information Destruction, a trade association providing the standards and ethics for the information destruction industry to ensure total compliant destruction of functional drives. “As a partner, we are excited to play an active role in this fantastic campaign and are pleased to announce that we have committed to reduce the processing costs by 25% to increase the value of the proceeds that will be donated to Feed The Children,” said Hamilton Rice, president of Technology Conservation Group, Inc.
“A very creative program, original and very commendable - rarely do we see such a program that will benefit so many,” commented Glenna Smith, special projects and events coordinator at Feed The Children. “KOM Networks has demonstrated a great deal of social caring and responsibility by giving back, utilizing the means that they have at their disposal. A program like this is an excellent example of how corporations can become part of the solution to the problems of child hunger and pollution around the world.”
About KOM Networks
KOM Networks is the world leading provider of flexible, secure data archiving and storage management software. Over 10,000 of the world’s leading corporations have recognized KOM Networks as the most logical, unobtrusive and secure way to store, access and protect their data. KOM is enabling enterprises large and small a cost effective way to improve productivity and meet compliance requirements without altering their network infrastructure or daily business routines. The industry pioneer holds vital industry patents for electronic file lifecycle management, virtual file management and eWORM fixed content hard disk archiving. For additional information about KOM Networks, please visit www.komnetworks.com.
About Feed The Children
Founded in 1979, Feed The Children is consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters. In FY 2006, Feed The Children distributed more than 129 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally, supplementing more than 738,000 meals each day. Since its founding, the organization has reached out to help those in need in 118 countries around the globe. For more information, please visit www.feedthechildren.org.
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Technology Conservation Group Inc. joins KY EXCEL
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Dec. 18, 2008) -- Technology Conservation Group Inc. of Louisville has joined the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection's (DEP) environmental leadership program KY EXCEL as a master member, the program's highest level. KY EXCEL recognizes public, corporate and private sector organizations that act to improve Kentucky's diverse and unique environment through environmental leadership.
"We want to welcome Technology Conservation Group Inc. to KY EXCEL and commend the organization for its efforts to recycle electronics and technological products," said Aaron Keatley, director of DEP's Division of Compliance Assistance. "The company is to be commended for its dedication to increasing its efforts, above and beyond the industry's environmental requirements, to create a healthier and safer Kentucky."
Technology Conservation Group Inc. (TCG) is a total recycler of electronic scrap, by-products and other components related to the manufacturing of technological products. TCG processes electronics equipment or components for reuse or recycling. If recycling through resale is not a viable option, destruction initiatives can be formulated. TCG works with its customers to tailor an avenue that meets a company's needs and allows for a greater revenue return.
"Kentucky EXCEL membership proves that we are proactive, rather than merely reactive, when it comes to the potential environmental impacts of waste electronics," said Don Andes, vice president of Business Development. "As the production and use of electronics products continue to increase dramatically throughout both the business and public sectors, the challenges of disposal and recovery of materials are becoming significant.
"The commercial sector has been recycling electronics for more than 20 years and has been the driving force in creating and growing the electronics recycling industry. Up until recently, the major sources of electronics products for recycling have been manufacturers and large users. Consumers also own vast quantities of electronics products in which many have been disposed of in landfills or left unused in storage.
"The number of TVs and personal computers becoming obsolete or replaced has been increasing significantly and is creating a need for community education and opportunities for consumers to recycle their obsolete electronics."
TCG's five identified environmental goals are to:
- Host two separate Take-back Electronics Days, where the public could bring CPUs, flat-panel displays, fax machines, servers, keyboards, monitors/CRTs, cabling, laptop computers, scanners, hardware, copiers, mainframes and populated/unpopulated printed circuit boards. Hazardous waste, refrigerators, microwaves or any devices containing liquids and gasses would not be accepted.
- Replace office, workstation and high-bay lighting bulbs with more energy efficient ones.
- Purchase more environmentally friendly products, including sealed air bags to replace packing peanuts and green cleaning products.
- Recycle plastic and bubble wrap, as well as wood debris and intact used pallets. Research ways of recycling or reusing foam (densifiers).
Launched by DEP in 2006, KY EXCEL is a voluntary program open to any individual, organization, community or business to improve and protect Kentucky's environment above and beyond the state's environmental requirements. To learn more, visit www.KYEXCEL.ky.gov or call the Division of Compliance Assistance toll-free at 800-926-8111.