Over the last few decennia, we have seen a major evolution from data on local servers to data in the cloud. We increasingly need to share data across continents and be able to access it from any location. Today, this evolution is reinforced by the mass working from home. This makes Protime, like any large SaaS company, aware of the importance of physical security in data centres. The security of our customers' data is a top priority. In this article, we list all of our key security measures for you.

1. A full-time dedicated team 

As you can imagine, datacenter management is not an easy task and is a full-time job. That’s why Protime has a team of 8 people within its organisation, in addition to its IT department, that is fully dedicated to the running of the datacenters hosting our customers' data. Thanks to our Datacenter Team, we can do permanent monitoring, optimal coordination and execution of any changes, configurations, internal projects or other upgrades of our servers.

2. Mirroring datacenters for permanent back-up

To maximise the security of the various data stored in our datacenters, a "mirroring” system has been settled. Thus, not 1 but 2 datacenters are being used by the Protime teams. These two operate simultaneously and are constantly synchronised, allowing us to have access to an immediate backup in case of a problem. Let's take an example to make it clearer. One of our datacenters has a malfunctioning module, preventing it from functioning correctly. Then, the second one immediately takes over, giving our team time to identify the problem, intervene and repair or even replace the damaged module. Finally, our two datacenters are located in different places in order to anticipate any issue that may happen in the infrastructure itself.

3. Permanent protection against water and fire 

What "complications" are we talking about? Well, simply fire or flooding. Once again, everything has been planned to anticipate any problems. To prevent any risk of fire, the servers’ room are equipped with smoke detectors. If a fire occurs, a gas is immediately released into the room in order to reduce the oxygen level, lower the temperature in order to limit the progression of the fire by "smothering" it. A water leak detection system is also installed to provide an immediate warning if water is present near the servers.

4. Back-up generators in case of need

Both of our datacenters are also equipped with backup generators so that they can remain operative independently if a power failure happens. These two secondary generators have their own power supply (running on petrol). A dedicated provider is even expected to come and recharge them if they’re activated. Everything is in place to be sure that our datacenters may run without interruption.

5. An ultra-secure location and encrypted data

The places where our servers are stored are, of course, also very secure (access control, surveillance cameras, etc.). Access is, logically, reserved for authorized persons only. Moreover, the data stored on our servers is encrypted to maximize its protection. In other words, even if someone could access to our data (which is very unlikely), it would be unusable without the decryption key.

6. A tested and optimised cybersecurity  

With the increasing risk of cyberattacks, Protime is closely working with Toreon, experts in cybersecurity, to optimise the protection of servers and datas. Toreon’s team frequently realizes plenty of penetration tests (also called "pentests"). The idea here is to simulate a cyberattack in order to spot and identify any potential security gap and immediately correct them. This allows us to constantly improve the cyberdefence of our servers.

7. Constant temperature control 

In order to prevent the servers from overheating, an air conditioning system is constantly running in the datacenter. Using a water-cooling circuit system, it distributes cooled air throughout the room 24 hours a day. The room also has a perforated floor to facilitate air circulation. The objective is to maintain an optimal temperature throughout the room.

Written by: Isabelle Fassin
Field Marketeer Flanders Protime