Data Center Operations

Facilities

The OCIO hosting facilities in Denver and Reston hold an A&A authorization to operate (ATO) at a FIPS 199 informational High level, in accordance with the DOI Security Controls Standard and the NIST 800-53 guidance / guidelines.

Generator/UPS’s

Our data centers are equipped with generators and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

Fire Suppression

There are fire suppression systems within each data center. All fire systems tie into the main building fire panel to facilitate emergency personnel in addressing problems quickly.

Smoke detection is located within the ceiling and under the floors. Sprinkler systems will not discharge until the sprinkler head in the affected area reaches 165 degrees.

Environmental/Maintenance/Monitoring

Each data center is equipped with multiple air conditioning units. All of which are covered maintenance agreements.

Our data centers are equipped remote monitoring systems that provide 24/7 monitoring of humidity, water, electricity, temperature, fire, noise level, and air conditioning failures. These systems are monitored 24x7x365 by the operations staff.

Security

Each data center has CCTV cameras, monitoring 24/7. Armed guards are present 24/7. Law enforcement is provided by the local Police Department and Department of Homeland Security, Federal Protective Service.

Other internal controls include visitor management, locked doors, card readers, pin codes, controlled access and audits. High security areas, including the data center areas, require additional approvals from a supervisor, data center manager, and IT security. Motion detection, intrusion, and glass break alarms are also utilized in various areas.

Data center operations is the foundation of our hosting environment and is critical to the delivery of OCIO’s services to DOI and external customers.

24x7 System Monitoring

OCIO operations is staffed 24x7x365. Systems are monitored for items like CPU, Memory, storage, up/down times, and where possible synthetic transactions to ensure availability. Monitoring of all systems is accomplished and maintained. Failures in monitoring will be reported to the client/customers within 1 business day of the failure becoming evident.

Reports are provided to the client/customer on a monthly basis within 2 business days after the completion of the month. The reports will contain all the details from the monitored services for the month and highlight peaks or usage over the thresholds contained in the agreement, i.e. Storage exceeds 70%.

After Hours Help Desk

Call placed to the Customer Support Center (CSC), outside of the hours of operations, are routed to the Operations desk which is staffed 24 by 7. Primary on call staff will be contacted within 10 minutes of receiving the call. Operations Help Desk will continual to attempt reach on call staff until issue is being addressed. All after hours contacts are documented to contain the callers contact information, reason for calling, who was contacted and any conclusion information.

Change Management

The OCIO has a well-established and well documented Change Management Process. This process is instrumented upon the BMC Remedy Suite of Change Management Tools. Documents describing both the Change Management Policies and Processes can be supplied upon request.

Disaster Recovery Services

The OCIO has facilities and the capability to provide support for different Disaster Recovery (DR) options and can provide pricing for these services as a separate option pending further discussion with the customer to capture requirements.