Physical security

[central]

When discussing about data center security, normally we refer to keeping the data center from malware, viruses and other cyber attacks. What about its physical security? I think it also plays an important role with data centers.

[telli12]

The physical security is vitally important too. I know many centers which have a great many hoops a person has to go through to get into their sites. Some just do not allow anyone to see their actual setup.

I sometimes wonder how good the security is in some of these places. The security officers are usually poorly paid, and work long hours.

[medialover]

About 1 year ago we had a call at 7:30 in the morning to our customer service lines telling us that a bomb had been planted in our building and was set to go off that morning. Well, we had the police in and they brought bomb sniffing dogs. No bomb was found. We believe it was a disgruntled customer who called it in.

What it did do was to lose the company a full day of productivity. Up to that time we did not have security personnel on site after 7:00 p.m. We have a card reader system where you have to have a card to get out of reception and onto any floor, but these can be bypassed. We all got new cards, for a new card reading system, and there are only 8 people who have access to the datacenter, and only 16 who have access to the floor it is on. We also now have 24/7 onsite security.

[thecommis]

As the business mission critical and business majorly depend on security and availability of datacenter. It is very critical to consider physical security as part of plan.
Rightly mentioned by "medialover" and "telli12", that physical security can cause a threat .

Physical security also refers to accountable and traceable logs and videos of visitors.
There should be authorization system to allow or restrict people with in facility.
Facility should also have CCTV and security cameras to monitor inside and outside of facility.
Facility should also have detection system to detect any volatile material.

[eUK-Mac]

Well, most of the data centers nowadays are full equipped with all the necessary security equipments such as CCTV cameras placed outside the building to monitor the parking lots. Electronic Access Control Systems (ACS) at all the entry points. However, it is always better to have a check with one of the authorised employee of a data center before placing your hardware.

[bell]

data centers take physical security very seriously. i read that some data centers do not even let prospective clients take the whole data center tour. that makes sense, of course. no data center would want to be vulnerable to threats in their weak security points. card access is used, of course, to make sure ppl who do not belong in the data center do not enter.

[Jesper]

In my experience most data centers takes the physical security very seriously just as they focus on preventing cyber attacks. The biggest problem I see when it comes to data center security, is the threat that comes from within the company. Recently read that around 80% of all security threats and data breaches comes from within the company. Amazing!! Don't understand why not more companies take this threat seriously...

[mightyjoe]

Yes you are totally correct. In my office the data centre is highly secured and we have to swipe our id card when ever we enter the data centre so it is recorded each time who ever enters. But if it is a small office you can create other precautions such as keeping a log book to sign who ever enters the data centre.

[futurehosting]

A data center I won't name, I used to have to turn over my state id in order to receive my data center ID that would open the cage we rented. I also had to go through a pretty extensive man trap and several check points.

It always made me feel safer, even if it was a pain when I was carrying a heavy server.