Monitoring a Financial Hub

May 1, 2004 12:00 PM

The next time you stop at an ATM machine, think of Genpass Inc., Irving, Texas, an electronic funds transfer (EFT) processing company that might be handling the financial transaction.

Established in 2000, Genpass now operates more than 22,000 ATMs in all 50 states on behalf of financial institutions, independent sales organizations and retailers. In addition, Genpass owns the MoneyMaker and Money Belt EFT networks, installed in many major convenience store chains.

Continuum system integrates multiple building systems

Genpass's critical network infrastructure must be protected and operate uninterrupted. The company turned to Andover Controls, Andover, Mass., and local Andover representative, Entech Sales and Service, Dallas, to address the security needs and critical monitoring requirements of their corporate headquarters building.

Genpass's corporate headquarters occupies 79,000 square feet and employs more than 200 people. Inside, a 9,000-square-foot data center is the lifeline of the company, serving as the hub of all EFT transaction processing for its clients. The company's national call center, ATM lab and command center are also housed there.

An Andover system was installed in the facility several years before Genpass moved in; and both Andover and Entech Sales and Service came highly recommended by building owner, Prentiss Properties. A system upgrade to Andover's newest product line, Continuum, was a logical choice to meet door access control and data center monitoring requirements, while providing accessibility to facility data with a Web-based interface.

“The system allows me to tie in multiple building functions and reduce my costs,” says Bill Lacava, Genpass's vice president of enterprise networks. “In the past, I worked with multiple systems, all with different front-ends. Now, integrating all our systems together and using only one front-end is more convenient and allows me to have a small facilities staff.”

On the security side, the Andover Continuum system provides card access control for 17 doors. All employees have general access permission, with a select number of personnel assigned higher-security levels for access into restricted areas such as the national call center, ATM lab, command center and the data center. Using the Andover system, the facilities staff and security guards can monitor the doors, lock and unlock them as needed and respond to door alarms.

For HVAC, it's imperative that critical computer systems in the Genpass data center be maintained in a controlled environment. Temperature and humidity monitoring ensures that there are no equipment failures to bring down the network and affect millions of EFT transactions all over the country. Even slight changes in temperature or humidity must be carefully monitored.

The Continuum system ensures that environmental changes do not go unnoticed. Continuum operators monitor numerous data center systems, including the HVAC units, power distribution units (PDUs), back-up batteries, generator and switch for the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system, the information distribution system (IDS), which drives the PCs and phones, and the leak-detection system.

Transparent critical equipment monitoring

The Continuum system monitors the two SiteLink Liebert air conditioning units in the data center using a Modbus “XDriver.” This communications software interface allows Continuum to monitor third-party equipment to receive critical alarming and point information, thus eliminating the need for an additional front-end.

Continuum also communicates via an XDriver to the data center's Fike FM-200 fire suppression system. FM-200 systems have replaced many of the ozone-depleting Halon systems since 1994, and are installed in critical applications such as data centers where water damage from sprinklers must be avoided. If the FM-200 system were to sound an alarm, the Continuum system would also sound an audible alarm tone as a graphic screen would display on multiple workstations with pertinent alarm information. The Continuum system also sends e-mail and text messages relevant to the alarm to applicable pagers and cell phones. Continuum operators click on the alarm screen, where scripted instructions tell them what course of action to take; i.e., call the fire department, call the building engineer, call management or go to the fire panel and silence the alarm. If the issue has not been resolved after a predetermined amount of time, the FM-200 will discharge a dry powder into the data center that depletes the oxygen level to an extent that a fire could not continue to burn.

According to Ben Crowell, account executive for Entech, this alarm response scenario is typical. “We designed the entire data center monitoring system at Genpass so that even if you knew nothing about any of the equipment, if any device were to go into an ‘alarm/trouble’ state, the Continuum graphical screens quickly and easily direct you to the proper action you need to take.”

Real-time alarm monitoring with built-in Web pages

The primary controller that serves as the network manager for the Continuum system is the NetController. Genpass uses its built-in Web interface to monitor environmental conditions in the data center remotely from its PCs. Entech designed custom HTML pages for Genpass that reside directly in the NetController. Management can browse via the Internet to the controller's IP address on the Genpass network and view the Web pages to retrieve building data and status reports, check alarms and change set points.

“Just recently,” Lacava notes, “I was paged with a ‘leak detection’ alarm after hours. I brought up the Web page at home, verified that it was a leak under one of the air conditioning units in the data center, and notified someone to follow up immediately.”

Web-based front-end lightens facilities staff's work load

Genpass is using another Web-based product to facilitate employee access control. A Continuum front-end software package called web.Client allows the Genpass staff to access employee personnel records in the system's database using a standard Web browser and a PC. According to Wendy Hunt, facilities coordinator at Genpass, web.Client, allows day-to-day security management tasks to be delegated, such as adding, deleting and editing personnel records; assigning or denying access privileges; remotely opening and closing doors; and calling up access history reports. “Now the HR department can deactivate an employee's access card following a termination,” Hunt says. “And the security guards can monitor the door activity and remotely open and close them from their PCs.”

Since installing the Continuum system, Lacava reports that Genpass has reduced its monthly electrical bill by $500 to $1,000 — by being able to monitor and adjust environmental parameters in its data center.

FOR THE RECORD

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Andover Controls	30
Entech Sales and Service	31

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