Data Center: Security and Operations Transformed

The problem

Data centers are built for redundancy, but theft and vandalism can get around all of it. Theft is the most common crime against businesses (15%), followed by burglary and vandalism (9%), according to the 2022 Commercial Victimization Survey.

The challenge

A hyperscale Tier IV data center provider promises 100% uptime in its SLAs. It already ran 3,000+ cameras, alarms and access controls, but no team can watch 3,000 feeds live — and incidents still slipped through.

The analysis

Working with the data center team, Awiros mapped four causes of downtime:

• Fire and smoke: equipment damage and service interruptions.
• Weak access control: unauthorised people inside critical areas.
• Physical security breaches: data and asset theft.
• Temperature instability: overheating and system failures.

Incident logs showed that fixing access control and physical breaches alone could cut incidents by 80%. The team split the facility into four security zones — cabinet rooms, computer room, facility control and perimeter — each with its own strategy:

• Intrusion and tripwire detection along the whole perimeter, plus off-hours, crowd and unauthorised-access alerts in critical areas.
• Asset location monitoring in computer rooms.
• Rack door monitoring in server rooms.

Guards and manual CCTV review couldn’t enforce this. The site needed automated detection, real-time alerts to the command centre, and a clear path to resolve and escalate each one.

The solution

Awiros integrated with the site’s VMS so every alert lands in the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) with live video, ready for operators to act on.

Using footage from the site, the team built and tested agents for intrusion, person collapse, dwell time, crowd counting and rack doors, then ran them in production for six months. The results:

• 99.87% uptime, backed by real-time alerts.
• 15x more observations from 24/7 analysis of 3,000+ feeds.
• 68% fewer unauthorised-access and loitering incidents within three months.
• 80% fewer rack doors left open.
• Hardware failures caught early through automated temperature monitoring.
• 100% of alerts escalated and resolved.

The impact

Perimeter SecurityIntrusions flagged along the whole perimeter.

Theft PreventionAsset placement tracked inside server rooms.

Person LoiteringLoitering in sensitive areas flagged — and sharply reduced.

Unauthorised Entry MonitoringUnauthorised access detected automatically.

Off-Hour Compliance MonitoringEvery entry, exit and movement recorded, 24x7.

Rack Door MonitoringOpen rack doors caught in real time.