Sep. 22, 2009 (Business Wire) -- The clock is ticking for government agencies and their contractors, who have until next Thursday to comply with updated regulations from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for protecting federal documents, photos and other records. To help those with federal records meet their compliance obligations, Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the global leader in information protection and storage services, has opened four, specially-outfitted records centers exclusively for storing and imaging government documents.
The 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1228, subpart K, from NARA prescribes standards that focus on the security and fire safety of federal record storage facilities. By Oct. 1, government agencies and contractors must finish bringing older facilities, or ones that have stored federal records since before Aug. 29, 2005, in compliance with these standards, or they must have relocated their records to compliant storage. NARA set the deadline in 2005 for upgrading established record facilities when it amended its Code of Federal Regulations first introduced in 2000. The amendments clarified requirements for facilities already storing federal records and mandated all future federal record centers comply.
With more than 1,500 federal government agencies and contractors as clients, Iron Mountain has achieved full compliance and is now accepting records at its four CFR-compliant Federal Record Centers in Redlands, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Elgin, Ill.; and Fredericksburg, Va. Iron Mountain has specially designed and outfitted each facility to store more than one million cubic feet of federal hardcopy information and to provide quick access to it via onsite imaging capabilities.
“For many in the federal market, this deadline and these regulations may seem new, but Iron Mountain is ready” said Jeff Johnson, senior vice president of Government Services for Iron Mountain. “We have been protecting and managing federal records for more than 50 years, experience we’ve leaned on to understand the CFR requirements and to offer our customers a compliant data storage solution that’s more cost effective than if they invested the requisite financial and human capital to do it themselves. The federal government plans to enforce these new standards, holding both agencies and their contractors responsible for compliance, and it reserves the right to audit facilities and practices for compliance.
