Securing physical access and
environmental services
for datacenters
Introduction
Datacenters often house the ‘crown jewels’ in the form of information assets comprising IT hardware (mainframes and other computer servers, disk farms, tape silos, networking equipment etc.) and,
of course, enormous quantities of extremely valuable business data and highly-skilled IT workers. Concentrating so many high value items in an enclosed space increases the vulnerability to common physical
threats such as thefts, criminal or accidental physical damage, power or equipment failure, fires/overheating and floods. From the business person’s perspective, damaged IT hardware can be repaired or
replaced quite easily but the information content and the IT staff who manage it may be practically irreplaceable. The impact of a serious datacenter security incident is therefore potentially
massive. This combination of vulnerabilities, threats and impacts results in significant security risks associated with datacenters.
The NoticeBored technical briefing (see below) describes typical physical security controls and environmental services required to maintain suitable and safe operating conditions for datacenter systems and
workers.
Applying the best practice controls identified in this paper will help to minimize but not necessarily eliminate datacenter security risks. Solid incident management processes and contingency plans are therefore
also recommended.
Download
Click here to download the paper*
[The paper was originally delivered to NoticeBored customers in November 2004 as a Microsoft Word file for use in their security awareness programs. It is an example of NoticeBored’s high-quality technical
output stream, just one part of the fresh creative content delivered each month. Please contact us for further information on NoticeBored or see what we delivered this month.]
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