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Unify Your Security Solutions to Improve Uptime and Efficiency
Discover how unified security systems can enhance data center uptime, streamline compliance, and strengthen defenses against evolving threats.
3 Min Read
Ensuring maximum uptime through unified security systems and streamlined operationsImage: Alamy
Today’s data-driven landscape is spurring growth in data centers. Dealing with the fast-changing regulatory mandates and cyber threats heightens the complexity for data centers that need to stay on the cutting edge of security while remaining compliant. More colocation data centers want to know how to centralize security, compliance activities, and operations to ensure maximum uptime and efficiency.
Whether you face a physical security breach or cyber-attack, a cease in operations can cost your data center millions in damage, loss of customer contracts, and noncompliance fees. You look at every aspect of the business to reduce downtime. One often overlooked area is physical security systems.
Unifying video management, access control, license plate recognition, intrusion detection, and more on a single platform can centralize security, compliance activities, and operations to ensure maximum uptime and efficiency.
Take a Layered Approach to Security
Data centers have multiple overlapping perimeters, each with its own access rights, risk profile, and requirements. Specific partitions must be maintained when it comes to individual customers’ hardware and data.
Relying on one sensor or analytic to detect intrusions is inefficient and can lead to increased vulnerability. Instead, you can implement a layered approach to security. This includes video management, access control measures, visitor management, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), LiDAR, fencing, and more.
To help actively monitor input from these sensors, new technologies help your team identify and highlight events that require further investigation. Automated alerts, in conjunction with a structured process, are key. Your team can investigate and resolve suspicious activities in a timely and consistent manner.
Break Down Silos from Isolated Systems
Many colocation centers have security personnel monitoring systems 24/7 to respond to incidents as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, working with isolated or siloed systems can slow down response times. Such systems require operators to move between applications to piece together important information.
Isolated systems also make it more difficult to automate alarms.
Security personnel must actively monitor inputs and identify specific security threats. They can become overwhelmed with the amount of information coming in, leading to increased vulnerability.
As data centers grow to meet increased demands and changing needs, updating their physical security systems to a unified platform is a crucial step in protecting their customers’ data. Unification brings together all security system components seamlessly in a single software platform with one user interface.
Here are some of the ways a unified security platform can help you maximize uptime.
Digitize your standard operating procedures (SOPs) – Guide your operators’ responses to predefined events and incidents using SOPs. This can help ensure compliance with different regulatory requirements.
Define access rights policies and compliance rules – Allow only people with certain credentials into your data center by using your security system to manage access rights. These can be assigned according to the role, professional certifications, or training of employees, contractors, and visitors.
Optimized Reporting – Save time by consolidating all necessary reports at the click of a button. Run custom reports that show access history, credential creation, camera events, temperature control, alarm activity, and more. Reports can then be automated, shared, and displayed in easy-to-use dashboards to collaborate with all necessary stakeholders.
Modernize access control – Upgrade from mechanical keys to intelligent key systems and biometrics. Better secure entrances and exits to restricted areas and easily manage access privileges.
Extend perimeter security with ALPR – Know which vehicles are on your premises using automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) technology. Get a real-time inventory of vehicles and limit lot entrance to vehicles with license plates on approved lists.
Tools for improved collaboration – Invest in work management solutions built for security teams. These tools improve communication and collaboration. Teams can work together more effectively by easily knowing which tasks are in progress, need to be addressed, or are resolved, while quickly producing reports.
The main goal should be a solution that unifies all aspects of your security. Your security team gains a comprehensive view of all your data center locations to make better, more informed decisions. Regardless of how your data center grows or how the threat landscape evolves, you’ll be able to make changes that keep your business secure, compliant, and running at peak efficiency.
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