Protecting Equipment

---

Protect your equipment and the facilities that house it.

• easiest and cheapest segment of assets to replace

Physical Concerns for Equipment

You will find fewer physical threats to equipment than to employees or data.

• Extreme temperatures—especially heat—can harm your equipment.
  • rely on environmental conditioning equipment to keep the temperature to typically in the high-60s to mid-70s
• Liquids, even in small quantities, like the water in humid air, could harm equipment.
  • cause corrosion, short-circuits, etc.
• Living organisms might also damage equipment
  • insects and small animals could cause electrical shorts, interfere with cooling fans, chew on wiring, etc.
• Movement, in the earth and in the structure of your facilities, can hurt your equipment
• Energy anomalies can be extremely harmful to any type of electrical equipment
• Smoke and fire are bad for your equipment, as they introduce extreme temperatures, electrical issues, movement, liquids

Site Selection

When planning a new facility, take into account the facility’s location.

Be wary of:

• natural disasters
• civil unrest
• unstable power or utilities
• poor network connectivity
• extreme temperature conditions

Compensate for some problems by:

• installing power filtering and generators to counteract power problems

For data centers, it’s important to have a problem-free environment.

Secure Access

When securing access to equipment or facilities, use the concept of defense in depth by placing security measures at multiple areas, both inside and outside the facility.

Security landscaping, which can include trees, large boulders, and cement planters, placed in front of buildings or next to driveways to prevent vehicle entry.

Leverage Authorization and Access Controlss.

Environmental Conditions

When it comes to the equipment within your facilities, maintaining proper environmental conditions is crucial to continued operations.

• Computing equipment can be sensitive to changes in:
  • power
  • temperature
  • humidity
  • electromagnetic disturbances
• typically equip emergency electrical power, like generators, as well as systems that can heat, cool, and moderate the humidity as required
  • these controls are expensive, and smaller facilities might not be appropriately equipped