From the perimeter to the rack: the future of physical security

When it comes to security in data centres, cyberattacks very much dominate the headlines. But among the multiple heightening challenges caused by the AI-driven proliferation of facilities is the threat of physical security failures.

It has been estimated, for example, that one in 10 malicious breaches result from such incidents, potentially costing millions in damages and downtime as criminals, vandals and activists steal and sabotage equipment and operations.

Aside from malicious attacks, the growth in operations results in greater risk of equipment failures, unseen defects and hazards like fires as rack density increases, further compounded by the decreased presence of human security patrols as data centres become more automated over time.

The size of the issue is only set to grow as data centre activity accelerates and transforms, amid the rise in both data centres at the edge and large hyperscale facilities.

Scale challenge

“Over the past five years, hyperscale data centres have typically ranged from 30 to 60MW per building, but now they’re building and talking about hundreds-of-megawatt and even gigawatt buildings and campuses,” says Peter Dempsey, key account manager and data centre lead for the EMEA region at Axis Communications, a global provider of video and other surveillance products and services headquartered in Lund, Sweden. “The scale of these facilities is off the charts and data centres are also moving to the edge, bringing new physical security challenges.”

Like multiple other areas of data centres, the need to accelerate the provision of physical security is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it creates a challenge to rapidly build up the watertight systems needed for larger-scale and more distributed facilities. But on the other hand, it ramps up the pace of innovation to keep up with demands.

The need to do this quickly is reflected in the sheer growth that Axis has seen in the IT and technology part of its business, which Dempsey says is its fastest-increasing segment among the wide range of industries it focuses on – from aviation and healthcare to banking and finance, hotels and restaurants, public transport and retail.

“On the physical security side in data centres, we’re on an exponential growth path,” says Dempsey. “This is a trajectory we’ve been on for the last two years and I think it’s going to continue right out to 2030.”

Many layers

Among the trends that he highlights in this area is the need to get cameras to do more through analytics and AI at the edge, while being able to monitor a wider area.

“There’s a shift towards more intelligent analytics for security, with Axis pushing both hardware and platform innovation,” says Dempsey. “We’re seeing a lot more convergence between the physical and IT world. That opens up many more opportunities, even though there are also more challenges and risks associated with it.”

Axis pursues what it calls a “multi-layered” approach to physical security, with comprehensive services for all areas of a data centre that enable the provision of a holistic overview and also allow premises to be monitored with fewer human patrols.

The company identifies five basic layers, starting with the facility’s perimeter, followed by the area inside the main gate, access areas and systems, individual server rooms and, finally, the server rack. “When we talk about the security landscape, we go all the way from the perimeter to the rack,” says Dempsey. “We’re originally associated with being a camera manufacturer, whereas we’re actually an end-to-end security supplier.”

He adds that providing services and analytics at all different scales is in line with players in the data centre industry increasingly seeking lifecycle management options, wanting to know multiple types of information on assets across their lifespans.

To illustrate some of the big changes in the industry, Dempsey goes on to describe some of the innovations happening at both the first and final layers of this scale.

At the perimeter, Axis is increasingly combining the use of different camera technologies to enable better tracking – including a large-scale detection and verification service purpose-built for mega-campus environments.

“Traditionally, we used thermal-based camera technology for the perimeter, but we’ve more recently been incorporating our thermal solutions with radar and optical solutions,” says Dempsey. “We have three different technologies working together autonomously at the edge.”

Working in tandem, these systems can better detect intruders and then push information back to the data centre’s control centre without the need for intervention from an operator.

Rack level

At the other end of the scale, Axis is getting more requests for in-rack detection products as racks grow in density to boost computing power for AI – creating extra risks from factors like overheating. The company is therefore designing cameras to be put inside racks.

“One of the key considerations when it comes to in-rack density is in providing proactive maintenance, identifying when the heat signature of certain electrical components or other parts inside a rack are hitting a point at which we should push out a notification,” says Dempsey.

Axis is also creating sensors to perform tasks such as identifying that only employees with authorised access to racks or other equipment in the data centre are those that are actually using them – with some even requesting the deployment of facial-recognition technology for this purpose.

Meanwhile, the rapid growth of liquid-cooling systems as a more efficient alternative to air-based cooling conductivity brings additional evolving challenges into the data centre. There is, for example, a risk that water could pool in certain areas, potentially causing a hazard to people or damaging equipment.

“More immersion and liquid-cooling systems being brought in means more liquid is coming into the data centre environment,” says Dempsey. “Smart analytics running on cameras can identify if water starts to pool in a certain area and send out a command to get somebody to take action.”

He adds that data centre players are seeking visual verification of faults before they even reach sensors, helping to avoid issues before they become real problems – with large-scale failures not an option in the modern-day data centre. “We need to make sure these systems work continuously, while giving an advance heads-up as to when some elements of a system are possibly going to fail,” says Dempsey.

Two years ago, the company also launched its Axis Cloud Connect service, an open hybrid cloud platform enabling a range of managed services to support system and device management, video and data delivery. This helps to tie systems together and enables secure remote access to live video operations to keep better track of security.

By having a multitude of technologies and options for security, the company hopes to reduce the number of false positives that affect systems too.

Looking to the future

With the data centre industry advancing so fast, Dempsey says one key impact is that it is necessary to more rapidly forecast into the future to see what might come next. “Designers are looking to design buildings now around technology that they predict will come out in the next two or three years,” he says. “We’re heavily involved in that design side and the evolving challenge.”

As well as that, Axis is learning through partnerships it has throughout the data centre industry, giving it the best access to knowledge on potential upcoming trends and technologies. This includes major hyperscalers, colocation players and designers.

It also has strong backing from multinational imaging company Canon, which acquired Axis in 2015. On top of that, it can leverage its strong and long experience from the past, with Axis having launched the world’s first IP video surveillance system as long ago as 1996. As it applies more intelligent analytics and AI over time, Dempsey believes the opportunities to boost security in data centres are huge throughout the world.

“The rapid growth in the data centre industry is reshaping not just capacity requirements, but the physical design and risk profile of modern data centres,” he says. “The field is continuously evolving, and the growth in need for security is exponential.”