Disaster Recovery/Security

Most Data Center Managers are not aware of the risks they are taking when retiring defunct or obsolete IT assets. This presentation will discuss how to reduce your data privacy and environmental liability risks while protecting your company’s reputation from disparaging press. The latest standards and practices for both onsite and offsite hard drive and media data destruction will be highlighted. Learn how companies are reducing costs while navigating the pitfalls of universal waste disposal that comes with the decommissioning of old equipment as we refresh technology.

In the wake of the Japanese tsunami, it has become very clear that power availability can no longer be taken for granted. Robust, up-to-date, well-documented disaster recovery and business continuity planning is essential for all enterprise data centers, particularly in light of recent natural disasters, socioeconomic unrest and with changes to regulations impacting businesses. This session will discuss how to increase application reliability while decreasing energy consumption; how to utilize historical trending data to plan responses to alerts and situations; and the steps to structuring a data center to respond to both planned and unplanned events.

Recently, new types of malware have been unleashed that target the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems – that is, the industrial control systems (ICS): computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, used to control electrical and mechanical infrastructures. These cyber weapons have the demonstrated ability to cause catastrophic damage to physical infrastructure. In 2010 the STUXNET worm infiltrated an Iranian nuclear facility and seriously damaged uranium purification centrifuges. Cyber security experts expect this type of attack to become more commonplace as criminals adapt the malware to attack private sector targets. Data centers often use SCADA systems to control switchgear and mechanical plant functions.

Maintaining compliance with data privacy rules and regulations – PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA, and others – is becoming more and more complex and harder to deal with; considering both to be of equal importance. This presentation provides an overview of the physical security requirements specified in prominent data privacy directives and explores risk-managed strategies for addressing them.

It is more and  more common today for new data center buildings to be designed with security components such as access control already  considered in the building design.  This session will cover the latest advancements in access control systems and discuss  how to integrate access control with video verification or video recording of events so that data center managers  can verify and record who actually accessed certain areas or systems in a data center.

With all the products, information and pre-conceived notions regarding Waterless Fire Suppression Systems these days some companies are so confused they have made the choice to simply not install one.  And that could be a fatal business error.  This common sense, up to date and explanatory session will be in layman’s language and will attempt to dispel confusion, myths and misunderstandings often perpetrated about Waterless Fire Suppression Systems and the various agents used in them.  If you are considering, have ever considered or just want to know what the heck is in those big tanks sitting in your data center, spend an hour with us.