By Ryan Searles and Russ Hoppel

Security and resiliency are vital components for ensuring uninterrupted operations of data centers—particularly for high-compute facilities, a rapidly expanding market that is expected to grow by 14 percent annually through 2030.

Every new facility’s computational processes, structural and operational systems, grounds, and staff must be protected against cyber-attacks, intruders, active shooters, natural disasters, and power failures. The most effective approach for maximizing the overall resiliency of complex data centers is best achieved through integrated holistic security design, which includes six key strategies.

Strategy #1: Include security early in design. | Including security during the design phase provides the most effective and cost-efficient solutions for an overall robust security program. Therefore, owners should have a security consultant on the design team from the very beginning. This allows collaboration with the architect and engineer, enabling all potential threats to people and assets to be addressed within a cohesive design that provides a high level of security that operates in concert with operational systems and other infrastructure.

Strategy #2: Create a security master plan. | A comprehensive data center master security plan is the best way to ensure that the desired outcome can be accomplished within an owner’s timeline and budget. At the same time, the architect, engineers, and security consultant should work together to conceptualize and meet the owner’s overall intent while integrating their respective systems. The master plan should be driven by all characteristics and needs of the data center. Specific security approaches can then be applied to the master plan and resulting design, including the following two strategies.

Strategy #3: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design | Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, or CPTED, is a group of strategies that increases physical security without creating an overly institutionalized aesthetic. This leverages site and architectural elements to create secure environments. These strategies can include increasing natural surveillance, creating territorial boundaries, and establishing social management programs. CPTED can be customized to meet any data center’s unique characteristics and setting.

Strategy #4: Concentric Circles of Design | Another effective security design provides layers, or concentric circles of security. Each circle encompasses an aspect of security and technology, such as cameras, access control, building envelope, landscaping, CPTED principles, and more. All these circles work in tandem to provide an all-encompassing security plan. As with CPTED, designers and owners should work together to identify the options within each circle that work best for their specific project and create a plan to implement the solutions.

Strategy #5: Technology and AI | Owners need to look beyond simple bolt-on technology for their access control and security cameras and consider technology that supports all aspects and strategies of their facility’s holistic security design. Security-related technology will vary from building to building, but common state-of-the-art solutions for physical and cyber security include such things as access control, AI analytics for real-time threat detection, visitor management, and quantum-safe cryptography to protect data from future quantum computing threats.

Strategy #6: Respond, Recover, Adapt | Holistic security design also includes preparing your staff for the impact of an emergency event and how to respond afterward. The three actionable components of this strategy are to prevent or mitigate threats, respond effectively in the event of an active threat, and recover post-event.

Read IMEG’s data center security guide to learn more about these strategies, maximize the protection of your people, assets, and property, and help ensure your data center is resilient when a potential threat becomes reality.