UK Colocation data centres have become the go-to data storage services for most organisations — talk of scalability, maintenance, uptime and improved operational efficiency of the stored servers. That said, businesses looking to migrate their IT infrastructure from on-premises server rooms to colocation data centres are particularly interested in the security aspect of this hosting service.
Renting out a space in a UK colocation data centre means relinquishing direct control and monitoring over your servers to a third party. Unsurprisingly, data centre security has become of significant importance — data breaches and ill-intended cyberattacks have left many businesses with utter losses. Recent stories, such as the dropping of the social media platform Parler by AWS for violating its terms and services, highlight why security is the priority for many clients.
With the amount of data stored on servers growing exponentially and the number of hackers trying to make huge reap offs from successful data hacks on the rise, low-level data protection won’t cut it anymore. Therefore, data centre managers must look to employ the best data centre security practices to safeguard their client’s servers from all forms of risks and threats, whether physical or virtual.
This article looks at the data centre security risks and what UK’s leading colocation data centres such as Safehosts colocation are recommending as the best data centre security practices.
What is Data Centre Security?
How secure is the data you transmit on online platforms? Are the sites you are visiting protecting your privacy and personal data? These are among the hot topics when it comes to data storage on servers.
A business network plays a critical role in an organisational infrastructure because it acts as a medium for all its business activities. For instance, the network stores the business’ transactions, personnel data, and business trade secrets. Securing this network thus becomes a mandatory undertaking for the business.
Data centre security refers to the laid-out measures, technology, and policies implemented to safeguard the network systems and the physical infrastructure housing these systems from external or internal threats.
Data centre security is enforced through restriction, filtering and management of access; specifically, by only allowing authorised access to the servers either physically or virtually.
Data Centre Security Risks
Businesses, especially those operating in finance and healthcare, are made to comply with strict regulations, a breach of which is subject to heavy fines. However, the heavy penalty is not the only concern as operational and reputational risk emanating from a data breach could spell doom for these businesses.
The risks come in various forms aimed at the hardware or software components of the entire network. Data centres must protect the servers of any business from all these risks, whether it is a hack, DDoS attack or a computer virus.
Intentional or not, the risk of a data breach can result to:
- Loss of customer trust
- Noncompliance fines
- Financial and reputational damage.
Preventing these outcomes is dependent on the data centre security measures that are implemented.
Data Centre Security Best Practices
Data centre security experts recommend that equipment hosting mission-critical applications conform to the highest security protocols. Moreover, both the network and physical IT environments must be maximally protected. Here are some of the best data centre security practices to look out for when choosing a UK colocation data server to host your business servers.
1. Network security
Data centres must guarantee the security of networks under their care by employing tactful solutions against cyber threats. This could involve firewalling, anti-spam, anti-DDOS and antivirus solutions.
For a UK colocation data centre to be secure, it must meet the European data protection laws — the General Data Protection Regulation. Data centres meeting these standards will be issued with various certifications such as the ISO 27001 and NEN 7510 for information security.
2. Onsite Personnel
Onsite personnel play a pivotal role in the success of the data centre security strategy as they play the first and last line of defence. Therefore, the staff must be trained to prevent and detect any threat to the servers swiftly and promptly.
The onsite personnel should also be trained to manage and maintain other peripheral security systems such as scanners and cameras to ensure servers’ access is limited to authorised persons.
3. Surveillance Technology
The perimeter of a data centre should be monitored using the latest surveillance systems to detect any potential threats. The more responsive a system is, the quicker and more efficient it will be in analysing and addressing imminent risks.
Such systems could include a combination of thermal scanners with long-range detection and high-contrast imaging. These systems can perform well even in poor lighting conditions such as at night, during heavy rains and fog.
4. Secure all Entry Points
Entry to the data centre location should be highly restricted using barriers and biometric systems. The barriers can be used to funnel all visitors through highly monitored mantraps. Besides, turnstile can be used to reduce piggybacking, and biometric technology should be mandatory to grant access only to preapproved persons.
By employing all these measures, companies such as Safehosts are able to protect their data centres, thus guaranteeing security and uptime for their clients’ servers.
