To undertake such a massive building project, Digital Realty Trust turned to SafirRosetti to help them create an integrated solution that would become the platform to control their facilities and provide centralized building management.

SafirRosetti is a full service consulting firm dedicated to assisting corporations, governments and individuals develop and implement solutions for security challenges worldwide.

SafirRosetti works closely with Advanced Video Surveillance (AVS) of Fairfield, NY. AVS is the one-stop shop enterprise level integrator for Digital Realty Trust. AVS manages the AMAG Technology Symmetry Global Security Management System that ties the Digital Realty Trust sites together. AVS provides technical support for all facilities nationwide.

Several companies were asked to cooperate to provide a fully integrated platform for Digital Realty Trust. These include AMAG Technology’s Symmetry Security Management System for Access Control and Digital Video Recording, Andover Controls Building Management System, Critical Point Monitoring System, and Equipment Pipeline’s Computerized Maintenance and Monitoring System. The AMAG Symmetry SMS provides the integration platform for all the systems to work in a converged environment.

AMAG Technology’s Symmetry Enterprise Security Management System is installed at the Dallas Command Center; however each building site controls its own server providing complete control at the local level. Symmetry intelligent controllers facilitate distributed processing among the sites.

AMAG’s digital video solution, Symmetry Video, works with Symmetry Enterprise to provide a deeply integrated solution. AMAG’s XML integration module allows Andover’s Building Management System to seamlessly integrate with the onsite Symmetry Security Management System. Building Management events requiring security attention appear in Symmetry’s Alarm Screen prompting action by security officers. 

Security officers view live cameras in a comprehensive video matrix that automatically enlarges camera views that are in an alarm state. The cameras automatically record based on priority events signaled by the security or building management system, catching critical events in real time.

Each lease owner manages the security/building management system and Symmetry’s user friendly interface allows them to easily authorize, assign and change who has access to which areas of their facility.

he security officers manage the security side of the building platform. The security system monitors by exception. The system documents any “exceptions” and they are addressed. These exceptions are presented to the security officer as an alarm or event along with the associated video. 

If a critical piece of equipment goes into trouble mode, it will translate a critical alarm to the security system. The guard will notify the correct people to fix the problem. In the event of a security alarm, security officers and building engineers both respond.

“We want security officers to be aware of alarms, but we also want our building engineers to respond if we had an alarm on a critical piece of equipment,” said Martin. “Several departments are responsible for responding to alarms to ensure that nothing slipped by or was not responded too.”

Building engineers respond to all critical alarms, such as a generator system failure, but because there are some situations where they wanted both security officers and the engineers to respond,  such as if somebody lifted an EPO button  cover, that would immediately alert  security and cameras would record  whoever was tampering with that button.  

Tampering with that button would result in losing all power in the computer room; therefore the engineers would be notified as well. During fire alarms, both security and building engineering are notified at the same time because they both have a separate function.