PM Network - March 2015

14 PM NETWORK MARCH 2015 WWW.PMI.ORG theEdge

Data Under Lock and Key

Data security is not just a virtual concern, but a physical one. Project teams are constructing data centers that fend off real-world intrusion.

Large-scale cyberattacks have made clear organizations’ vulnerability to hackers—and the high stakes involved. The 2013 breach at Target compromised 40 million credit cards, 70 million customers’ personal information and factored into the retail giant’s 46-percent plummet in holiday profits. The 2014 attacks at retailer Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, affected 56 million cards and 76 million households, respectively.

Project teams thus face heightened pressure to defend the security of data centers—ground zero for all information. In 2013, for instance, Google spent US$7.35 billion on Internet infrastructure, largely due to its data-center expansion projects.

“For our mission-critical clients, the security of their facilities is high on the list of nonnegotiables,” says David Ibarra, project director at DPR Construction, Redwood City, California, USA, which has built data centers for Facebook and eBay.

DPR’s data centers range from simple cage environments requiring card access to “facilities that
include barriers, bomb-blast-resistant zones and even dog-patrol areas,” Mr. Ibarra says. “These
facilities must comply with multiple rings of security philosophy: deter, detect, access, delay,
respond and deny.”
Data center provider Equinix also builds multiple rings of security into its data centers. “We design