Improved Data Center Security - Cost-Effective and Compliant Solutions

Doing all three in the same budget line item is a big win and allows for more competitive pricing. This is where secured entry solutions come into play, helping data centers attract customers by ensuring staff and facilities have the tools they need to control security and reduce costs.

When it comes to safeguarding a data center facility, important decisions must be made regarding both cyber security and physical security. A layered approach to the physical security component is crucial.

For the protection of the most sensitive area in a data center, the server room, it is critical that a physical security entrance prevent intrusion. Security Revolving Doors and Mantrap Portals enforce single entry by means of an overhead sensor system called StereoVision. Once a user presents their credentials and the door revolves or opens, StereoVision scans the compartment, verifying the user is alone. Inside the interlocking mantrap portal, an internal biometric device can be used to verify identity, confirming that not only one person gets inside, but the right person. This rigorous identification process does take time, typically only allowing 5 people through per minute. Since few employees are typically permitted inside, these entrance solutions are ideal for data center applications.

Beyond security, secured entry solutions empower staff with the infrastructure and tools they need to meet certifications and demonstrate absolute customer audit compliance. The ability to comply with Gramm-Leach-Bliley-Act (GLBA), the December 9, 2022 Safeguards Rule Compliance, FISMA, ISO 27001, HITRUST, PCI DSS, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, and ITAR, is all part of your automated physical security deployment strategy for customer acquisition and retention. With a layered secured entry strategy, you can: 

• Automate compliance for physical barrier entry/exit points.
• Reduce security training and operating expenses.
• Better sustain continual operations. 
• Protect customer’s data, shareholders, and insurance policies.  
• Immutable 90-day archived records and alarm retrieval records for customers, shareholders, insurance, and compliance audits.
• Protect offices and containment areas with automated 24/7/365 physical security reliability. 
• Design entry/exit performance capabilities that utilize segmentation, redundancies, and analytics that build trust.  

Power usage effectiveness (PUE) isn’t the only operational improvement initiative available to data centers. But with rising energy and water resourcing costs, designing a security entrance that is always open and always closed, without eating up valuable square footage is a unique challenge.

Conventional swing and sliding door entrances create a hole in the building envelope every time someone passes through, allowing outside air to rush in to displace the controlled internal atmosphere. In fact, as much as 50% of the total energy loss in a well-insulated building occurs through and around doors and windows. Such loss is both cost and energy inefficient.

Security revolving doors and interlocking portals provide energy efficient entrances that are always closed, thus driving efficiency and assisting with contamination control during everyday use. Boon Edam piggybacking and tailgating prevention solutions utilize twenty to fifty percent less square footage and provide superior air filtration performance to traditional vestibules. On average, eight times less air is exchanged with a revolving door than with a sliding or swinging door, thus driving efficiency and reducing loss. 

Boon Edam tailgating and piggybacking secured entry solutions can virtually eliminate 100% of Door Forced Open (DFO) and Door Held Open (DHO) alarms. Boon Edam full height turnstiles, security revolving doors and security interlocking portals prevent all of these security violations, and therefore eliminate all alarms generated by them at conventional swing doors. Compliance benefits include:

• Automated user notifications are confined locally at the entry/exit and resolves all user interfacing and error issues without alarms.
• Policies and procedures are enforced automatically without alarms.
• 100% elimination of DHOs for compliance reporting.
• DFO alarms will only occur when the unit if physically destroyed or altered and breached.

Most importantly, secured entry solutions consistently force compliance and automate the issue resolution process. As a result, employees are not performing remedial tasks such as false alarm response and manual entrance checks but can focus on customer facing objectives that offer revenue generation.

Boon Edam has three primary manufacturing facilities, 15 subsidiaries and over 100 distributors worldwide. In our 150th year, our worldwide presence provides the global footprint needed to ensure that your equipment is manufactured, installed and maintained consistently, allowing for peak performance 24/7/365.

The risk mitigation goal for a data center is to allow customers easy access for change control, while at the same time keep unauthorized people out of the facility by quickly identifying and stopping those who do not have the necessary permissions. A multi-layered approach that establishes several barriers equipped with automated alarm resolution is what works the best in this application.

For this to happen, an unattended entry design must always be closed, securely segmenting the lobby access point to protected assets. Secured entry designs should also provide redundant identity checks for only one authorized person and resolve issues automatically without bias. A layered approach not only keeps unauthorized people out of the facility but also quickly identify and stop those who somehow manage to move forward into the building without the necessary permissions.

An example of a layered secured entry system includes:

• Security as a Service that requires on-line pre-registration for guests.
• Vehicle barrier perimeter controls equipped with access control and intercom.
• Parking lot access – Full Height Turnstiles equipped with access control and tailgating prevention, and intercom, with an adjacent pedestrian gate.
• Pedestrian Gate access by SOC and internal gate controls only.
• At the building envelope, a Security Revolving Door with access control, equipped with piggybacking and tailgating prevention. Simultaneous in and out traffic flows, and automated user notification resolution and alarms elimination.
• The reception area with automated check-in and security personnel checking the credentials of visitors, greeting customers, and monitoring staff movements. A second security revolving door for access to offices and non-containment areas equipped with automated user notifications and alarms elimination.
• Access to containment areas deeper into the building, a mantrap portal with multi-factor identification, redundant screening for tailgating and piggybacking prevention, and automated user notification resolution and alarms elimination.
• Security as a Service may provide security to the cage levels within the containment areas.

None of these layers require or depend on a person for compliance governance and at the same time allowing for the free flow of an authorized customer to perform change control. All this while eliminating all DFOs and DHOs for compliance.

Physical security starts with keeping unauthorized users off the premises altogether. A data center is typically surrounded by a security fence outfitted with a full height turnstile for access. Employees exit their vehicles, proceed through the turnstile and enter the building. Full height turnstiles are a visual deterrent against infiltration and prevent tailgating, or (an unauthorized person following in the next compartment). Until recently, they did not stop piggybacking, which is two people squeezing through in the same compartment.  But Boon Edam has just introduced BE Secure, a patent-pending overhead detection system to prevent piggybacking.