According to the UK Government’s Home Secretary, Theresa May, recently referring to international terrorists: “The threat we face is now more dangerous than at any time before or since 9/11.” She went on to announce that the UK threat level had been elevated to “Severe” where an attack is judged to be “highly likely”. This is only one threat level below the maximum.
Data centres are prime targets for terror attack because of the massive disruption and chaos that taking one or several of them out of service could cause to UK life and the UK economy.
Natural targets are likely to be areas like London’s Docklands where there are large concentrations of data centres in relatively small geographic areas.
And, although the whole of the UK is placed on severe threat alert, major conurbations like London, Birmingham and Manchester are far more likely targets than rural areas.
Enterprises of all types that rely on data centres should give serious consideration to mitigating terrorist threats by having their disaster recovery (DR) or secondary data centres far away from those target areas.
In fact, enterprises that do not need extremely low latency to the City should seriously consider not only the safety aspects but also be far lower cost base of a datacentre that is “out of sight, out of mind” from a terrorist perspective.
Tucked away in Norfolk – yet provided with excellent fibre connectivity and power is the MigSolv Gatehouse Data Centre, a 30,000 sq.ft. technical floor space data centre that has more anti-terrorism measures in place than you’ll find in major centres. It has been audited and commended by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office.. And has a far lower likelihood of attack than data centres in the major conurbations.
Two large data halls are separated by a massive bomb-blast earth mound so that in the very unlikely eventuality of an event at one, the other is fully protected. The perimeter of the nine acre site is protected by a three metre steel fence with microwave intrusion detection along its entire length. Plus, there’s CCTV and infra-red on the outside of the site and biometrics on the inside.
The site is very well connected, with a number of mainstream Tier-1 carriers on site with dual redundant fibre connectivity. And, unlike London, the electrical supply is not in short supply.
Another big plus for clients of the MigSolv Gatehouse data centre is that the entire site is PCI DSS compliant for the processing and storage of credit card and other financial transaction data. Surprisingly few data centres carry this accreditation.
Kaynak : 