Physical Security in the Data Centre: Best Practices for 2024
Is your current data centre security infrastructure equipped to handle the latest physical threats?
Data centre security isn’t just about firewalls and encryption—it’s about supporting the security of the facilities that power your business and allow it to function.
With the rapid evolution of digital threats, it’s easy to overlook the real risks posed by physical breaches and targeted attacks on your infrastructure.
Safeguarding your data centre demands an approach that integrates robust physical security measures into every aspect of your data centre design and operation.
In this article, we’ll outline the best practices that will help you protect your data centre and ensure uninterrupted service that is resilient, secure, and future-ready.
The Threat to Data Centres in 2024
Data centres house highly valuable equipment, making them prime targets for theft.
However, it’s not just the complete systems like PCs or UPS equipment that attract criminals. The raw materials within these devices, particularly metals such as copper, have become increasingly sought after.
With the price of copper rising by 39% over the past four years, the motivation for metal theft is high. Metal theft offences in the UK have more than doubled from 13,033 in 2016/2017 to 29,920 in 2021/2022, despite a recent marginal dip. This shows the need for robust physical data centre security measures to protect against both theft and the significant vandalism that often accompanies these crimes.
Another threat to data centres is damage. If not correctly safeguarded, data centres are vulnerable to various environmental hazards such as fires and water leaks, all of which can severely damage infrastructure and disrupt critical services.
Additionally, power outages pose a significant risk, making reliable backup power solutions essential to prevent operational disruptions. Human threats, both from insiders and outsiders, also remain a concern, with unauthorised access and sabotage potentially compromising sensitive data and infrastructure.
Robust data centre security protocols are vital to mitigate these diverse threats and ensure the ongoing protection and resilience of data centres.
Best Practices for Data Centre Security
Modular and mobile prefabricated data centres represent a more modern approach in physical security compared to traditional brick-and-mortar facilities.
Allowing for precise alignment of your technical space requirements, infrastructure expansion, and delivery timelines, these solutions offer unmatched security, portability, and flexibility. Unlike permanent structures, which are fixed in place once constructed, our prefabricated data centres can be built, pre-engineered, tested, and commissioned in a controlled environment before delivery.
This approach ensures that every element meets stringent data centre security standards while allowing for rapid deployment and redeployment as your needs evolve.
Secure Design and Construction
In today’s threat landscape, adhering to strict data centre security standards is essential. The LPS 1175 standards, ranging from SR1 to SR5, are recognised globally for their rigorous testing and certification processes. For critical assets and high-risk locations, SR5 should be considered the benchmark, offering the highest level of resistance against forced entry. By designing your data centre to meet these standards, you ensure that your facility is prepared to withstand sophisticated physical attacks, protecting both your equipment and data.
Incorporating blast and ballistic protection into your data centre design is crucial for safeguarding against extreme threats. Our prefabricated panels, designed to meet EN1522/23 standards, can include materials offering protection up to FB7, ensuring resilience against ballistic impacts and explosive forces. This level of protection is especially important for facilities located in volatile regions or serving as critical infrastructure.
Compliance with government security standards, such as the UK Government’s ModuSec GS: NPSA guidelines, provides the highest level of assurance for data centre security. Our modular solutions are designed to meet these stringent requirements, making them suitable for deployment in sensitive environments where security is paramount.
Fire Protection and Detection
Are your fire protection and detection systems advanced enough to provide early warnings?
Ensuring the safety of your data centre against fire is non-negotiable. Our solutions offer certified 90-minute fire protection, defending your critical assets from both internal and external threats.
Paired with advanced early detection systems like high-sensitivity smoke detection (HSSD) and Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA), we provide immediate alerts to potential fire hazards.
These technologies allow for swift action, minimising risk and ensuring your data centre remains secure and operational in any emergency.
Electromagnetic Security (EMSEC)
In highly sensitive environments, electromagnetic security (EMSEC) is crucial. To protect against electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio-frequency interference (RFI), we offer advanced Tempest shielding options.
These solutions are designed to safeguard your data centre from external disruptions, ensuring that your operations remain secure and uninterrupted, even in the most challenging conditions.
Advanced Monitoring and Access Control
Robust monitoring and access control are critical for maintaining data centre security. Our solutions include comprehensive physical and environmental monitoring systems that track temperature, humidity, and detect leaks, ensuring optimal conditions at all times.
To prevent unauthorised access, we implement advanced biometric access controls, HID locking handles, and intruder detection systems. Additionally, our integrated CCTV systems, with options for local or cloud-based storage, provide continuous surveillance, offering you complete oversight and peace of mind.
Environmental Monitoring
Real-time environmental monitoring is crucial for today’s ever-changing data centre to ensure your servers are performing at their optimal levels. Environmental factors like temperature, humidity, airflow, smoke, and electricity can have a detrimental effect on your IT equipment.
EcoStruxure is a data centre infrastructure management tool, useful for environmental monitoring. Our team of data centre experts assesses your environment, and through developing and understanding your business objectives, we select and deploy the right EcoStruxure modules so that you can monitor and control exactly what you need to, through a simple and user-friendly interface.
The fully scalable EcoStruxure management solution provides you with expert power readings, environmental readings, and camera images from any site on your network, along with user-defined reports and instant fault notification and escalation to enable quick resolution of critical infrastructure events.
We make sure your EcoStruxure solution is rapidly deployed. This means you can manage your data centre from anywhere, analyse real-time information and integrate it with other management systems.
Key Considerations for 2024
In 2024, selecting data centre solutions that are scalable, sustainable, and rapidly deployable is crucial. Your infrastructure must be able to adapt as technology advances and your business grows, ensuring it remains relevant and efficient.
At the same time, incorporating eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient designs helps reduce the environmental impact of your operations, aligning with both corporate responsibility and long-term success.
Lastly, the ability to deploy solutions quickly is essential, particularly for disaster recovery or sudden demand increases, ensuring your data centre remains resilient and responsive in any situation.
Conclusion
Protecting your data centre in 2024 requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond traditional measures. By integrating advanced physical security, fire protection, environmental monitoring, and electromagnetic shielding, you can ensure that your facility is resilient, secure, and ready for future challenges.
Scalability, sustainability, and rapid deployment are key considerations that will not only protect your critical assets but also ideally position your data centre for long-term growth.
If you’re reviewing the security of your data centre, ask yourself – is it designed to withstand emerging physical security threats and sophisticated attacks? How effective are your current measures?
Contact us today to learn more about how our solutions can enhance your data centre’s security and scalability.