What does business continuity mean to you? For Microsoft Global Security it
can involve locking a door from the other side of the world.
One part of Microsoft Global Security's activities is monitoring physical
security at the company's premises around the world. This is carried out from
three Global Security Operations Centers (GSOCs), located at Redmond (USA),
Reading (UK) and Hyderabad (India), each responsible for their geographical
region.
The previous approach was decentralised, people-intensive, and involved more
than 60 different proprietary systems, inconsistent policies across locations,
live video monitoring, VCR recording, and lots of paper.
In contrast, the GSOCs are centralised, automated, highly interoperable, and
use generic hardware (notebooks are used so they can be quickly removed if a
centre must be evacuated) off-the-shelf software, and digital video. The
hardware standardisation means that any workstation can be used for any purpose,
though in practice seats are associated with particular functions.
