Within the Cloud: Technical Concepts of Cloud Computing - Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure - page 61

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Disasters happen. They are out of our control, but their impact can be minimized through
careful planning and preparation. This doesn't mean you have to have a bombproof building
or one that could survive a catastrophic event; what it does means is that the most important
commodity being housed in your data center should be well protected in the form of backups.
Backing Up on Tape Tape backups are the cheapest and most common backup method
used today. Since tape backups do not have the advantage of capacity, they are usually
performed daily and then sent to a secure location offsite. This ensures that there are
physical backups to use in case of disaster or accidental corruption or erasure.
Backing Up by Data Vaulting Another method for performing backups is data vaulting.
This involves a WAN link to a remote backup facility, which backs up data as frequently as
desired, even up to the minute. This ensures almost real-time backup but is obviously more
costly because the backup facility itself is a data center. There are, however, some third-party
providers of backup services.

Physical Security
The network operations center (NOC) is your command center when it comes to the day-to-
day operations of your data center. It can serve as the single point of monitoring, supervision,
and maintenance for your network, software distributions and updates, and other essential
processes. The NOC includes climate control systems and power and generator monitoring
and can stand as the security control center for the data center facility.
The NOC will be the office of the operations staff, so make sure there are ample
facilities and space for the consoles and monitoring equipment to be placed there. When
interconnecting different data centers from different time zones, it is good practice to
allow NOCs to be able to take control of data centers other than the ones they are origi-
nally set up for. This helps you to tap into your pool of technical experts from different
locations to solve local problems. It also minimizes late-night shifts because NOCs from
other time zones can take control during the late hours.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing security for the data center:

All access points into the data center must be controlled by security access devices
such as card readers, cipher locks, and biometric scanners. All access attempts must be
logged, no exceptions, so this must be done automatically. If possible, a short video clip
is automatically recorded with each access attempt and stored for a certain duration
pending review.

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Avoid using exterior walls for the data center. The center must be a room within a
room to prevent external accidents or intrusion. Windows especially should be avoided
because they interfere with cooling.

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Video cameras and motion sensors must be installed and monitored around the facility,
including on the raised flooring and dropped ceilings.

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Air ducts must be made inaccessible to humans to prevent physical intrusions.

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