A company’s data center is both its brains and its muscle. A central facility housing data storage systems, computer systems, backup power supplies and security devices, a data center is perhaps at greater risk and therefore more deserving of world-class data management and on-site hard drive shredding than any other component of a company.
Recent data breaches, many of which have been on a global scale, have shown that the largest multinational corporations and government departments are not immune to data breaches. And while data breaches affecting smaller departments and small- or even microbusinesses may not make the world’s headlines, they too are on the rise.
Protecting Your Data Center
Data centers are obvious targets for data breach attacks. As largely unstaffed facilities (save for security personnel) and typically located in an industrial area, data centers tend to be protected by a combination of security personnel and electronic security systems.
With data breaches on the rise, how best should a company protect the data in its data center? These five steps will go a long way towards ensuring the safety of your valuable data.
Physical Infrastructure
The physical location of the data center is as important as any other factor. Data centers should be located away from other company buildings, and in a low-risk area, ideally near other similarly secure facilities. Locations close to major roads or airports should be avoided.
On-Site Recycling
Data destruction solutions must take place on-site. Choosing a recycling company that offers on-site shredding will significantly reduce the risks associated with your data center, ensuring that document shredding and other destruction services take place within the secure facilities, and within sight of security personnel.
Access Controls
Access to the data center facility must be closely guarded and restricted. Only those employees with a legitimate reason to enter the facility should be allowed access: a general swipe card that allows access to other company buildings should not also be used to gain access to the data center.
Ideally, multi-level authentication should be adopted, with biometrics (retina- or fingerprint-scanning) becoming a more popular solution for obvious reasons. Well-positioned CCTV cameras should be placed around the facility, with the feed monitored 24/7.
On-Site Hard Drive Shredding
It is not only paperwork that should be destroyed and recycling at the facility, but hard drives and other redundant IT assets should also be destroyed without being removed from the premises. On-site hard drive shredding is the ideal solution, reducing your confidential hard drives, backup tapes, and other highly-prized IT assets to little more than a pile of scrap metal before it even leaves the premises.
After all, all it takes for a potentially disastrous data breach to occur is for a thief to walk out of a data center with one of your company’s hard drives concealed. Ensuring that hard drive destruction only takes place on-site is will go a long way towards alleviating this vulnerability.
Redundancy Plan
In the event of personnel failure or infrastructure inaccessibility – such as a power outage or security incident, backup measures must be automatically put into place. A redundancy plan ensures that backup staff and backup security measures immediately come into play should they be needed.
Find Out More
All Green Recycling has an impeccable history of service to some of the world’s largest data centers. With cutting-edge machinery and state-of-the-art data destruction and shredding equipment, All Green Recycling is perfectly placed to provide all the security that your data center needs. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.
