Modular Server Vaulting

The integration of a protective vault into a data center project may seem like a daunting task at first glance.  How will it fit inside an existing space, or be sized to the exact dimensions needed for the overall data center plan?  How will the coolant lines, air ducts and cables be brought into the vault?  What about physical security for the server vault?  These are all valid questions, and the answer to each of them lies in the design and specialized components that are used in FIRELOCK Class 125 server vaults.

Each vault is custom designed to meet each client’s exact size requirements, down to a fraction of an inch.  You don’t have to design the data center to fit the server vault, the vault is designed to fit your needs.  The same is true with the entry points for coolant lines, air ducts and cables.  We have specialized insulated penetrations for each application and they can be installed almost anywhere in the vault structure.  That way customers have all the cooling, power and communications capacity they need and real Class 125 fire protection.  Improved physical security is another advantage of installing a FIRELOCK server vault to protect the most critical area of the data center.  With the double door assembly (both are needed to achieve the Class 125 rating) you have several options for access control.  Most opt to install a magnetic lock on the inner door and integrate it with their swipe card or keypad access control system to ensure only authorized personnel can enter the server vault.

To make sure the installation goes smoothly we coordinate with all contractors who will be performing the finish-out work after our scope of work is completed.  This helps maintain the integrity of the vault and avoids delays in the completion of the project.  Building a data center is a challenging project, but integrating a true data rated vault to protect the most vital part of the data center doesn’t have to be.

Image courtesy of Time.com

After weeks of blazing a path of destruction in several areas in Texas, some much needed rain and the tireless efforts of firefighters have finally contained the catastrophic wildfires.  Well over 1,000 homes and businesses were engulfed in the flames, which at its peak covered an area roughly the size of Connecticut.  The residents and business owners in the affected areas are just now returning to see what, if anything, is left in the wake of the devastation.

For the businesses that had their data centers wiped out by the wildfires, the task of recovering will be a much more arduous one, if not impossible.  An unprotected data center, especially the server room where the most critical IT equipment resides, can take weeks to replace.  If the server room is protected by a Class 125 data vault IT operations can be up and running in a few days (or hours if a well designed disaster recovery plan is implemented) once the servers have been transported to a backup site.  This can be the difference between saving the business and closing your doors forever.

Only FIRELOCK builds true Class 125 data-rated fireproof vaults to protect mission critical IT equipment and backup media.  These vaults can withstand temperatures up to 2,000-degrees F. and keep the interior temperature below 125-degrees for hours, which is enough time for the fire to burn itself out.  That way you aren’t relying on the fire department to extinguish the fire before it destroys the data center.  As the rampant wildfires have demonstrated with extreme clarity, some fires are a force of nature that can’t be controlled by Man.

At first glance, it may seem like an odd combination for an archivist for a collection of historic documents and artifacts to be associated with the protection of IT equipment.  That was true in the past, but today’s more advanced archivists are leveraging the power of the Internet to make their collections more accessible and relevant to historians, educators and the general public.  More and more museums and historic preservation organizations are developing online archives and virtual museum exhibits that can be researched and enjoyed anywhere there’s Internet access.  Quite a change from the traditional scenario where only those with special credentials could be allowed to enter the archival facilities to do their research.

This new trend in archiving is why FIRELOCK will be exhibiting at the Society of American Archivists annual conference at the Hyatt Regency Chicago on August 25th and 26th.  We’ll be sharing the latest on fireproof vaulting technology for the protection of historic documents, artifacts and IT equipment.  Over the years FIRELOCK has provided data vaults for many organizations, such as the State Archives for Texas, Washington and Indiana, as well as several Native American tribes and many private collectors.  Now that archival organizations who want to safeguard their IT investments and original archival materials can utilize their vaults for multiple functions, they can have the best of both worlds.

Now that the wildfires that threatened the Southwest have been mostly contained, there is a new and even more wide-spread threat to data center operations.  The heat wave that is roasting most of the U.S. creates great stress on the HVAC systems that struggle to keep server rooms cool even in mild weather.  The chillers must work even harder than usual to keep cool air flowing into the data centers filled with heat-producing IT equipment.  This strain is exacerbated when ambient air temperatures increase the work load in the server room.  That’s when HVAC systems can fail and data centers shut down.

One highly effective way to prevent this scenario is protecting the critical areas of the data center with a server vault.  Not only are these vaults capable of protecting vital IT equipment from catastrophic fires (by maintaining the interior temperature below 125-degrees F. even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees) they also have an R-33 insulation rating.  This protects the critical space from increases in ambient air temperature and creates a stable environment year round.  Because these modular vaults are custom designed for each client they can be installed in existing rooms without wasting space.  The modular design also allows them to be expanded or relocated in the future.

In time this heat wave will run its course and most of the country will be back to more moderate weather, but there is no doubt we will have heat waves again in the future.  Those who prepare for extreme conditions will have peace of mind and lower power costs the next time the mercury rises.

The wildfires burning a path of destruction across the Soutwestern states are in the headlines again.  The nuclear materials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is being monitored for the threat of radioactive particulates being spread by the raging fires, though it seems unlikely this will occur.  What is a real threat is the loss of valuable IT equipment and mission critical information for the businesses and public authorities in the threatened area. 

A building fully-engulfed by these wildfires can reach 2,000-degrees F., certainly enough to wipe out any unprotected structure.  One common mistake among architects is using life safety standards as a guide for choosing building materials for protected spaces.  A four hour barrier may keep flames from penetrating the structure (which is the performance standard for life safety requirements) but the heat being conducted through that structure is sufficient to destroy any IT equipment or digital media inside that structure.  That’s where Class 125 server vaults are required to protect against the threat of catastrophic loss.  These vaults will keep the interior temperature below the critical 125-degrees F. threshold for two to four hours (depending upon the size of the vault) even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees.  FIRELOCK builds these server vaults to meet NFPA 75, the standard for fire protection of electronic equipment.  This means every component of the vault must achieve the Class 125 performance rating, including the structure, doors (equipped with automatic closers), cable penetrations, coolant line penetrations and HVAC duct penetrations.  No other manufacturer builds vaults to these exacting standards.

Chances are wildfires will strike again year after year, and not just in the Southwest.  Any data center operator with a facility that could be affected by this frequently catastrophic phenomenon should seriously consider taking action to protect their mission critical IT equipment.  When it comes to protecting data centers, the old proverb that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” rings true.

The federal mandate requiring all medical records to be originated or migrated into digital format should yield some significant improvements in the quality of healthcare in the future.  Because authorized healthcare professionals can more efficiently access patient information and share it with other healthcare providers, it is less likely that a piece of critical information will fall through the cracks.  This can be the difference between life of death in a worst case scenario. 

Of course there is a down side to digitizing all medical records.  Aside from the cost, security threats, and user adaptation issues, there is the challenge of preserving electronic records for long term storage.  Many patient records will need to be kept for several decades to comply with retention schedules.  Keeping archival data on spinning disks requires hardware and power to maintain, so high-density data tapes are the more economical way to store archival information.  As long as the tapes are stored properly and in a protected environment they can last for many years.  If they are exposed to temperatures over 125-degrees F. or experience constant cycling of temperature and humidity, the data can be lost.  Needless to say, loss of critical patient information carries the risk of costly litigation.

A very economical way of safeguarding this information is in a FIRELOCK Class 125 data vault.  These modular vaults are designed and constructed to ensure the temperature remains below the critical 125-degree threshold for two to four hours (depending upon the size of the vault) even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees F.  The R-33 insulation rating of the vault structure also makes it very economical to climate control.  In short, it’s the ideal solution for healthcare organizations that need a cost-effective way to safeguard their HIPAA-regulated information.

Between the natural disasters in Japan and the civil war raging in Libya, energy prices have been ratcheting up relentlessly in the past few weeks.  The unstable and potentially disastrous crisis at Japan’s nuclear power plants is likely to curtail any significant expansion of nuclear power sources in this country due to paranoia over safety issues.  Of course these events lead to higher operating costs for power-hungry data centers.  This blow to the bottom line is felt especially hard by organizations who operate multiple data centers.

One way to mitigate the financial burden of rising energy costs is to minimize the number of data centers in your network.  But how can you do this without increasing the risk of downtime?  By protecting one data center with a Class 125 server vault, you can mitigate the risk of losing mission critical information and equipment.  Only FIRELOCK can provide a true-data rated server vault to keep the interior temperature below the critical 125-degrees F. threshold for two to four hours (depending upon the size of the vault) even if the catastrophic fire reaches 2,000-degrees F.!  Networking equipment is especially vulnerable, and protecting it with a vault that meets NFPA 75 standards is cheap insurance against what could be catastrophic losses.

Even after the Japan recovers from their natural disasters and nuclear power plant crisis, and Libya reaches some degree of stability, there will likely be some other destabilizing events that drive up the cost of energy.  The current administration in Washington seems determined to limit utilization of fossil fuels to meet our energy needs, so supply will always lag behind demand.  There are many ways to improve energy efficiency within a data center, but none as successful as reducing the number of data centers in operation.  That is by far the most effective way to manage rising energy costs.

In a large-scale data center the individual server racks of equipment are often considered to be expendable.  The redundancy of information on the network and excess capacity that has been planned into these facilities gives some data center operators a  false sense of security.  The theory is that even if there is a major disaster at the data center they can continue operations as usual by utilizing the excess computing capacity in the unaffected areas.  The achilles heel of these data centers is the networking equipment, which effectively cuts off this data center from the outside world when a disaster strikes this vulnerable area.  A multi-million dollar data center can be taken off-line for an extended period of time because this one area of the data center was not protected.

An economical and effective way to safeguard this critical area is with a Class 125 modular fireproof vault.  The vaults designed, manufactured and installed by Firelock are capable of maintaining the interior temperature below 125-degrees F. for two to four hours (depending upon the size of the vault) even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees.  This ensures the survival of the delicate network communications equipment even in a catastrophic fire in that area.  The power and network cables would need to be replaced, but this would be a much faster repair than replacing all the lost equipment and cabling in an unprotected facility.  What is the cost difference between hours of downtime versus days of downtime for your organization?

Every year we become more dependent upon the flow of information, and downtime becomes more and more costly.  Firelock vaults have been protecting mission critical IT equipment for over twenty years, and have been installed in the most advanced data centers for Fortune 500 companies, military bases, managed hosting companies and others who cannot afford to lose their data center operations.  Technologies have evolved over the years, but the vulnerability of data centers to disasters remains the same.

IT executives for healthcare providers must now comply with two federal mandates that can be at odds with each other.  First, the push to have all medical records converted to digital format, then HIPAA requirements to keep all of this information confidential and protected.  So not only is the volume and variety of formats of information increasing, the penalties for failing to protect this information are becoming more and more severe.  Keeping these medical records confidential (guarding against hackers and preventing laptops and data storage media from falling into the wrong hands) is one half of the HIPAA equation, but it is just as important to prevent damage to or destruction of these records.

Since much of the information from healthcare organizations is being generated faster than it can be backed up, there is a significant risk that this information will be lost when the IT equipment that hosts this information is damaged or destroyed.  Therefore, the data center must be protected from all potential disasters to comply with HIPAA mandates to safeguard this information.

The threat of fire is omnipresent in data centers, due to fire-prone systems like high voltage transformers, UPS systems and HVAC systems that run at high capacity 24/7.  Fire suppression systems are a necessary component of any mission critical data center, but they are only effective if the fire starts inside the covered area.  Fortunately there is a way to protect the data center from the catastrophic loss a fire can cause and protect this vital information.  A Class 125 data-rated server vault protects IT equipment and the data hosted within by keeping the interior temperature under 125-degrees F. from two to four hours (depending upon the size of the vault) even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees.  This passive protection is the ideal countermeasure to complement the fire suppression system inside the server vault and keep the mission critical IT equipment safe no matter where the fire starts.  By proactively protecting patient information on the equipment that stores and processes it, the other half of the HIPAA equation is satisfied.

Apple Valley Data Storage is the most recent addition to the nationwide network of offsite data storage companies that has invested in a FIRELOCK vault to safeguard their clients’ information assets.  Based in Apple Valley, CA, this high security facility brings a new and more secure offsite data storage option to organizations in the High Desert region.  The services offered by Apple Valley Data Storage include data tape rotation and archival storage, document storage, X-ray storage, imaging, on-demand scanning, shredding, and related services.  This vault is also ideal for server colocation services.  The hospitals, corporations, municipal and county government agencies in the area are among the many organizations that will benefit from these critical services.

The fireproof Class 125-Three Hour FIRELOCK vault at Apple Valley Data Storage is capable of maintaining the interior temperature below 125-degrees F. (the point at which data loss occurs) for at least three hours even if the exterior temperature reaches 2,000-degrees F.  Of course there are many fire prevention systems in place in their facility, but you must always plan for the worst case scenario when protecting mission critical information.  The vault is climate controlled to maintain the optimum storage conditions for data tapes and other sensitive materials, and an internal fire suppression system guards against the threat of fire inside the vault chamber.  A barcode-based tape management system keeps track of all materials stored inside the vault and provides a documented chain of custody for clients.

The dedicated and knowledgeable staff at Apple Valley Data Storage is ready and able to assist customers with service plans that will satisfy their legal requirements for information preservation.  Now that this level of security is available in the California High Desert region, those responsible for protecting their organization’s information assets can finally find peace of mind.