Event monitoring systems make understaffed data centers run smoother
According to Symantec’s latest “State of the Data Center” report, which was released early last week, half of all IT executives say their data centers are extremely understaffed. With the economy still struggling to get moving again, it is no wonder that network engineers and facility managers are having to find new ways to get the most out of their stagnant or shrinking staff and resources.
Less staff means more remote monitoring for many organizations. Having a remote monitoring system, like the SecurityProbe, can help lighten the load of working with less. With a price point that usually falls below $2,000 for a complete system, it can mean a considerable savings over staffing each location, or even worse, not monitoring it all. In this scenario, one person can monitor the well-being of several locations.
Physical Security for Data Centers
Data centers house some of the most valuable and irreplaceable assets for any organization. For this reason, physical security is of the utmost importance when designing a data center. Depending on the size and budget of the organization, physical security measures can include everything from solid floor-to-deck concrete partitions to biometrics screening.
There should also be a number of sensors in place that can detect when anyone, authorized or unauthorized, accesses the data center. The following 5 tips show how Ravica can offer effective solutions for that final line of defense. Read more
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
Setting up e-mail notifications for the SecurityProbe camera
Security cameras made the news in a big way last weekend, when a security breach at the Newark Liberty International Airport led to the discovery that one of the TSA surveillance cameras had been broken for six days leading up to the incident. Six days! Now that gives a real sense of security in these uncertain times, doesn’t it? The breach, which authorities were notified of by an alert passerby, caused a 6-hour lock-down and possibly cost the airport over $100,000, according to a report in The Star Ledger. Thankfully, this breach apparently was caused by a man walking his girlfriend to her flight and not a potential terrorist, however, it certainly exposed the gaping holes in the security protocol at one of the busiest airports in the US.
I have no idea what sort of back-up notification system for camera failure the TSA has set-up, but after reading about the Newark incident, I wanted to find out what kind of notifications are available for cameras connected to the Ravica SecurityProbe. Read more
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
Security monitoring – camera applications
Our customers that are looking to take environmental monitoring to another level often ask about our camera monitoring support. I thought a short article on the applications would be useful to some of our regular readers.
Motion detector sensors add security to your data center
Filed under: Security Monitoring, environmental monitoring, motion detector
While working on a project recently, I was taught the importance of the motion detector sensor in the security monitoring toolset. The SecurityProbe is the first place to look for monitoring the temperature, humidity and other environmental variables of your server room, while at the same time adding a security presence with the pan-tilt dome camera support. However, for some customers with smaller or unconventional data centers, the budget for security and environmental monitoring can be in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands.
That’s where the motion detector comes in. It works not only with the SecurityProbe line, but with the BitSight2 and BitSight8 as well. The beauty of the motion detector sensor is that you can daisy chain up to 10 sensors to work off a single intelligent sensor port. And at just $125 per sensor, users can easily cover a good sized data room with motion detection and still have an extra intelligent sensor port on even a BitSight2 for monitoring temperature and humidity.
So keep the motion detector sensor in mind when speccing out a new data room or when adding security monitoring measures to an existing one. It is a very affordable alternative, when it is simply not possible to have eyes and ears on your secure locations.
For more information about our security monitoring solutions, call us at 207-324-8173.
~ Jon Mills
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Securing your data center with Ravica equipment
Filed under: Data Center, Intelligent Sensors, Security Monitoring, SensorProbes
I started working with an interesting client today.
The company is a small hosting service provider with approximately 100 clients. What made this company different was that their clients would come on site quite often. Each client would has a key card; this identifies who is coming in and out of the server room. The problem is that the cards were being handed off to other employees. Since the company promised the utmost in security, this started to become a concern.
The goal of my client was to provide a video record of each entry. To accomplish this, I suggested that we add security sensors to each door. This would tell us when each and every person went through the door. Next, we added multiple security cameras, to record who was in the server room. The dry contact sensors would also give us a good idea of when the person left. The next hurdle was the lights, since they are off most of the time.
We used the Sensor Controlled Relay to turn the lights on and off in the room. This gave the security cameras more then enough light for recording. This was implemented via the alert from the trigger of the security sensor.
The Sensor Controlled Relay is easily controlled by any of Ravica’s extensive selection of sensors. The relay can provide automatic responses to sensor alerts. This made it easy to configure a scenario where the security sensor on the door was tripped and the lights were turned on.
In the end, the process worked perfectly. When a customer entered the server room, not only was their entry logged via the keypad, but they were also getting video record of that visit. We are currently working on providing a common interface between all of the data sources.
- JimmyD
SNMP support for the SecurityProbe allows secure data center monitoring
Filed under: Data Center, Intelligent Sensors, Security Monitoring, environmental monitoring, power monitoring, smoke detector, temperature monitoring, water leak monitoring
In 2004, the IETF officially recognized SNMP v3, as defined by RFC 3411–RFC 3418, as the current standard version of the Simple Network Management Protocol. SNMP v2, although being a highly competent and widely used protocol, was severly lacking in the areas of security and remote configuration. Thus, SNMP v3 was born.
SNMP v3 added some much needed security features, like ensuring message integrity, verifying that the message came from a valid source with authentication, and packet encryption to ensure that messages aren’t being disseminated by unauthorized sources.
Because of its enhanced security features, SNMP v3 quickly found itself a requirement for many government and secure corporate projects. Since 2004, SNMP v3 has found itself a home in most networks with any sort of security requirements.
That is why the Ravica SecurityProbe line of SensorProbes supports SNMP v3. From within the Settings tab, simply select SNMP under the Connectivity header to the left. You will see the screen below.
From here you can select the type of security features required:
- No Authentication
- Authentication Only
- Authentication & Encryption
Enter your desired password, choose your authentication protocol and access privilege, then it’s off to the races. Now all of your SNMP information will be sent/polled from the SecurityProbe in version 3.
This is a highly popular feature amoung SecurityProbe users. Hopefully, if you didn’t already know it was there, you will find it valuable to impliment in your network. It is now as easy as ever to keep your physical data room details secure.
~ Jon Mills
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