Locking the Cabinet
Forsythe drives new business with innovation
- By Howard Carder
- Feb 01, 2018
Providing independent consulting, best-inclass
products, hosting solutions and financial
services to more than 1,000 U.S.- and
Canada-based companies, Forsythe is one
of the largest independent IT integrators in
North America. Their clients include dozens
of Fortune 100 companies and hundreds of Fortune 1000
companies. For nearly 45 years, Forsythe has been helping
organizations in all industries with their information technology
needs. Their experience crosses all facets of information
technology, including IT portfolio valuation, data center solutions,
system solutions, connectivity and security.
In 2015, Forsythe opened the doors of the Forsythe Data
Center, a 221,000-square-foot data center facility in Elk Grove
Village, Ill., featuring private data center suites with individual,
client-controlled suite infrastructure. The data center is a new
business venture for the company, providing modular, scalable,
private data center suites for clients of all sizes.
“This new center takes the Forsythe one-stop-shopping model
to the next level,” said Steve Harris, vice president of data center development at Forsythe. “We now offer clients
complete end-to-end services for their
full technology infrastructure lifecycle, plus
the facility to house them. We’re providing
clients with a more convenient, efficient and
secure data center facility option.”
Unique Security Service
Harris explained that in planning and
designing the Forsythe Data Center, the
company wanted to bring something new
to the market. In addition to leveraging
the company’s portfolio of existing services,
Forsythe was driven to offer the data
center for the future.
“We didn’t see ourselves just offering
a big warehouse with cages,” Harris said.
“We wanted to offer a unique experience
that would really wow our customers. As
we evaluated the market and looked at
competitive solutions, we saw an opportunity
in a new approach to extended security
services.”
The team discovered that customers
were looking for more flexibility, control
and accountability in regard to their cabinets
and suit, but existing data centers
didn’t have much new to offer. Most followed
the same basic model with sign-in
logs, change tickets and access control only
at the main room or suite door level. Most
existing security controls boiled down to
keys and escorts.
“In the center, we initially began using
cabinet locks in our own Forsythe controlled
areas,” Harris said. “With a large
number of visitors in and out of our various
facility rooms we needed to make sure
that vendors, visitors and staff would only
have access to the specific cabinets that
they are authorized to access. We quickly
realized that our customers were looking
for a similar solution, a way to control,
credential and capture an audit trail at the
cabinet level. We saw this as a unique service
breakthrough, and we began offering
the HES KS200 Wiegand server cabinet
locks to our customers.”
Secure Cabinets,
Controlled Suites
The ASSA ABLOY HES KS200 Server
Cabinet Locks extend access control to
protect data center assets from intrusion
and expensive downtime by bringing
real-time access control in a single-card
system to individual server cabinet doors.
Designed to install quickly and easily, on
most swing-handle style server rack doors,
the KS200 uses Wiegand wiring to integrate
seamlessly with existing access control
systems and ID badges.
The system supports a Small Format
Interchangeable Core (SFIC) mechanical
key override. An additional optional
extended DPS monitoring sensor can
be connected to ensure that cabinets are
closed, locked and secure. With an integrated
reader, the KS200 provides robust,
cost-effective access control to meet strict
regulatory compliance and protect data.
“This has turned into something really
interesting. We have a lot of customers who
now use the KS200 locks on their cabinets
in the multi-tenant and colocation areas,”
Harris said. “We’re also getting requests
to place the cabinet locks within private,
customer-controlled suites, giving them
the ability to control and track company
staff accessing each server cabinet.”
Forsythe Data Center is making use
of the cabinet locks in several different
ways. From the smaller meet-me rooms to
large telecom rooms, each cabinet has different
networking within it, often with a
different service providers needing access.
Even though Forsythe controls the rooms,
the cabinet locks enable a way to monitor
staff within the room. Some customers
have taken entire 1,000-square-foot suites,
and once they gain entry, need a way to
electronically control and monitor cabinet
access within their private dedicated space.
“Clients are coming in and asking
about the cabinet locks. After explaining
the system and its benefits, we’re able to
provide them with a hard-wall-separated
and floored suite with its own cooling,
power and now their own security and
access capabilities,” Harris said. “Clients
need complete control of their cabinets.
Especially in a suite situation, the customers
want cabinet-level access control and a
complete audit trail of who has had access
to their systems. They even want to see a
Forsythe employee audit trail. They want
a time-stamp record of all access.”
Integrated Security
In regard to general security and access
control, ASSA ABLOY products have
been specified as the standard across the
physical access infrastructure, and Forsythe
worked to leverage system consistency
and efficiencies across the platform.
“When we started this project, our
goal on the security side was to be fully
PoE, to drive our lock hardware with Cat-
6 cabling, and in large part we did this,”
said Thomas McKinney, director of data
center development and operations at
Forsythe.
The HES cabinet locks allow users to
run a Cat-6 from the network switch to the
PoE-enabled access control panel powering
the lock, which is easier and much
more cost-effective than trying to run independent
lock power for each cabinet.
The PoE part of the design was critical
right from the beginning.
“Our customers absolutely love the lock technology, the data we can provide and
the fact that physical keys no longer have
to be controlled or managed,” said Keith
Zurawski, director of data center operations
at Forsythe. “We have close to 200
locks installed, both for our own use and
those for our customers. We use the locks
heavily in our own environment because
we adhere to the same controls in audit
capabilities our customers require. We’re
definitely practicing what we preach.”
Partner Innovation
“This has been an interesting and rewarding
project,” said Chris Hobbs, business
development leader of the data center vertical
market at ASSA ABLOY. “Everyone
involved has really helped bring this together.
It’s exciting to work on something
new that will really make a difference in
the business success of our customers.
Forsythe is a forward-focused and dynamic
customer with the best interests of
their clients always driving their business
model. It’s truly a pleasure to work with
and learn from their organization.”
Hobbs explained that ASSA ABLOY
channel partner Anixter and systems integrator
ESSCOE helped make the system
a reality for Forsythe. Both Anixter and
ESSCOE contributed their access control
experience and recommended ASSA
ABLOY technology as the backbone of
the system.
As a leading global supplier of communications
and security products and
electrical and electronic wire and cable,
Anixter has a long and respected relationship
with Forsythe. Anixter has provided
the cabling and much of the infrastructure
for the new data center. In this project,
Anixter provided the KS200 cabinet locks
both individually and as a pre-installed
part of the cabinet rack kit. The KS200
is designed to fit a specific cutout, making
installation fast and efficient.
“We’re connecting the HES KS200
locks to Lenel’s OnGuard Access application,”
McKinney said. “So all the biometrics,
badge readers and KS200s are
tracked and given access rights through
the Lenel system.”
Reliable Integration
The Forsythe Data Center is a Tier III,
Uptime Institute facility, certified for its
reliability and redundancy with potential
communications and power issues. However,
physical security has little to do with
this quality rating.
“When you combine our uptime certification
with such a high level of physical
security that has six badge access points
between the front door and the cabinet,
plus more than 100 video security cameras,
a 24/7 onsite guard service, you can
begin to see that we take reliability and
security very seriously,” Harris said. “The
cabinet lock system is allowing us to take
security even further. Our customers from
the insurance, healthcare and financial
markets appreciate the higher level of security,
auditability and accountability. The
HES KS200 cabinet locks are allowing us
to make a significant step forward in providing
peace of mind for our clients.”
This article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Security Today.