While industries around the world have embraced digital technologies, data centre access control has remained relatively unchanged despite ever-present security risks. For decades, HID access cards have been used to access data centres, and a high volume of access points and card swipes has generally been accepted to equate to a higher level of security.

However, this dated approach of measuring and managing data centre security overlooks the serious risks of using a physical card to access a data centre and its vast volumes of confidential information. Just like access cards for office buildings, gyms, and residential apartments, these tokens can easily be shared among friends, lost on a train ride home, or damaged to the point of being unusable. Simply too much moisture, ultraviolet light, abrasion, or exposure to certain chemicals could render a card useless.

Challenges with existing data centre security

The potential damages of an access card getting into the wrong hands or causing a team member to rely on a makeshift way of accessing a data centre until new cards are developed, are multi-fold and could have severe ramifications.

Data centres typically have multiple security points, ranging from card swipes to unlock doors and airlocks, to biometric facial recognition and fingerprint scans. For those managing multiple data centres, the volume of access points multiplies, which forces organizations to use multiple access cards. With more cards comes greater risk, as each carries its own risk of being lost, stolen or damaged.

Introducing Bluetooth-enabled access technology

We can now use encrypted Bluetooth-enabled technology to allow any authorized user within an organization to access our data centre with their phone or tablet. This new technology allows the entire process around data centre admittance to be more secure, cost-efficient, and controllable.

Through a single secure platform, data centre companies like Leading Edge Data Centres can centrally manage and ensure two-factor authentication so that only the person with approved access is actually accessing the data centre at the approved points.

Furthermore, there is the added security of staff being significantly less likely to share their personal phone with a stranger or colleague, forget it somewhere in public, or expose it to potential damages in comparison to an access card they know is replaceable by their employer.

Pioneering mobile access control

No other data centre in Australia is using Bluetooth-enabled mobile credentials instead of cards and swipes to authenticate identity and grant entry – despite these dated forms of access control leaving businesses open to vulnerabilities as simple as a door being left open, or a staff member forgetting their card at home.

Leading Edge Data Centres is innovating against the status quo and partnering with cutting edge technology providers to introduce this new level of data centre security, particularly addressing the needs of regional Australian businesses which are often left behind when it comes to large-scale technology innovations.

Using traditional technologies, the onboarding process for a new customer would typically takes one week – including access requests, card deployment, induction meetings, documentations, and testing  – whereas using our new mobile and Bluetooth-based access control, we can  provide access to our data centres within hours.

For more information about Leading Edge Data Centres’ approach to encrypted Bluetooth-enabled security technology, get in touch.