In 2020, datacentres are estimated to be cleaner, greener and more flexible — but will they be any safer?
You don't even need an explosion to create disaster — all you need is some incident and you cannot get into your datacentre.
Harry Archer, head of security practice for BT Australia
By then, attackers targeting datacentres will have had another decade to perfect their assaults on enterprises, and in turn those enterprises will have had another 10 years to develop strategies to fight them off. So how will the datacentres of 2020 adapt?
If experts are correct, it will be the physical security of datacentres that will undergo the most change: datacentres will be moved out of the central business districts of cities, in an effort to tackle today's remaining physical threats.
The move from the CBD
Harry Archer, recently appointed head of security practice for BT Australia, says he was shocked on arriving in Australia to find datacentres located in the heart of Sydney's central business district.
"The datacentres I've seen in Australia seem to be located in cities, which is a concern. You don't even need an explosion to create disaster — all you need is some incident and you cannot get into your datacentre," Archer told ZDNet.com.au.
If there were even a small disaster — a gas leak, or a lengthy power outage — the response would be seriously hampered by a lack of space.
"If you started one of these backup generators, you would choke everyone in Sydney," said Archer.
The problems associated with locating datacentres in cities is one that UK businesses tackled in response to the September 11 bombings in 2001. Nowadays, he says, datacentres are outside the cities, in buildings that disguise their true role.
A shift is now occurring in datacentres Down Under, according to David Cowell, a consultant who has managed Australian datacentres for 30 years. "All the big banks have moved out to the suburbs and to regional areas in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Technology parks such as Norwest, which provide infrastructure for Westpac and Woolworths, are commonplace."
Projects like Norwest are already underway in Queensland, such as the Polaris datacentre in Springfield — Suncorp Metway is currently relocating there from its ageing Brisbane-based datacentre. The yet-to-be approved Canberra Technology Park being developed by Technical Real Estate (TRE) is also looking at a new approach to energy supplies to protect against physical threats.
Harry Archer, head of security practice for BT Australia
"What's unique about this is that it's a joint venture between a utility and datacentre developer. Normally you take power off the grid and the backup is a diesel generator in the building. We're doing the reverse. The primary energy will come from on-site gas generators and the backup will come from the grid," Stephen Ellis, TRE's director told ZDNet.com.au.
But the trend towards "co-location" at super datacentres, where companies share hardware or space, is presenting problems which could take years to resolve — in no small part due to the human element involved.
"All these colos have networks that terminate in the same room, which is full of cables with multiple customers connected to the world. If someone was in there and leant on a switch, bang, you could shut down an entire datacentre," he told ZDNet.com.au.
An entrance to a 2020 datacentre?
Given the risks posed by errant individuals making their way into datacentres, according to Olaf Moon, general manager for government hosting at Macquarie Telecom, the biggest challenge for the datacentre is identity management.
For Moon, best practice needs several layers of security. "For a person to get access, you must get past a check point where you must prove your identity. Visitors must enter the mantrap, which is like a sub-room, before entering the datacentre — that's where your authentication is checked. On top of that there is CCTV," he said.
Moon believes security technologies currently in use by Defence will trickle down to mainstream...
