Protecting Complex OT Environments Across Multiple Facilities

For data center operators, stealth infrastructure is vulnerable infrastructure. A global study by Statista in 2024 found that data breaches now cost businesses an average of $4.88 million per incident, while operational disruptions add countless more.

Modern data centers operate on complex networks comprised of BMS, UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies), coolers, sensors, and secure networks. Many of these systems operate outside of sight, but any single point of failure can lead to downtime, data loss, or reputational damage. Such downtime can also result in regulatory non-compliance, exposing operators to penalties and legal consequences. As a regional operator supporting mission-critical workloads across the Asia Pacific region, the company’s distributed operational technology infrastructure has grown faster than its monitoring and security capabilities have been.

Our clients are leading data center operators in the Asia Pacific region, providing mission-critical infrastructure to support cloud services, enterprise IT, and digital transformation initiatives. The company possesses a highly secure, carrier-neutral network of facilities across major metropolitan hubs, providing matching, interconnection, and infrastructure management services.

As an operator of multi-site data centers, the company strives to maintain visibility and control over its vast OT (Operations Technology) infrastructure. Data centers face increasing cybersecurity threats, particularly against BMS (Building Management Systems), which are critical to the operations technology infrastructure; any attack on a BMS can lead to catastrophic downtime.

What causes these challenges?

Ubiquitous blind spots: Lack of visibility into distributed OT assets.

Islands between organizations: Each facility uses different vendors and communication protocols, resulting in inconsistent monitoring and security vulnerabilities.

Uninterrupted integration: Adding modern security to legacy systems can lead to operational instability and costly system downtime risks.

Scalability pressures: Any solution must adapt quickly to multiple environments without slowing growth.

After implementing MetaDefender OT Security…

After evaluating several options, the operator chose MetaDefender OT Security because of its comprehensive OT asset visibility, inventory management, and threat detection capabilities. This platform offers a perfect balance between powerful monitoring capabilities and deployment flexibility to meet the needs of its complex multi-site environment.

Real-time Asset Viewing: MetaDefender OT Security automatically discovers and inventories all OT devices across the operator’s network, establishing comprehensive real-time visibility into critical assets and their communications.

AI-Driven Network Mapping: AI-driven network mapping analyzes traffic patterns to detect unknown or unmanaged devices without relying entirely on proactive scanning, which can be insecure in OT environments. This approach helps identify devices based on behavioral patterns, even if they don’t broadcast identifiable information when passively discovered.

Centralized Dashboard: The solution provides unified visibility into all OT assets across multiple data center locations through a central management console. The operations team can monitor the health, status, and safety of BMS and UPS systems, chillers, sensors, and safety devices from a single interface.

Extensive protocol compatibility for IT and legacy OT systems: The platform supports a wide range of industrial communication protocols commonly used in data centers, including BACnet, Modbus, SNMP, and proprietary building automation protocols. This comprehensive protocol support allows for simultaneous monitoring of both IT and legacy OT systems without requiring costly infrastructure upgrades.

Lightweight and flexible deployment: MetaDefender OT Security’s deployment models allow for site-specific implementations to adapt to each facility’s unique network architecture and security needs. Lightweight agents and sensors minimize network overhead while providing comprehensive monitoring coverage.

“With MetaDefender OT Security, we can now proactively monitor our BMS, UPS, and cooling systems from a single dashboard, significantly improving our operational efficiency and security posture. The flexible deployment models are crucial for our multi-site environment, and support for legacy communication protocols means we don’t need to replace our operating systems,” said the Director of Data Center Operations.

The implementation of MetaDefender OT Security has brought significant improvements to the operation of all facilities:

• Complete Asset Inventory: Provides a clear understanding of the OT infrastructure at all locations, enabling the discovery of previously unknown devices and the establishment of a detailed asset database.
• Reduced Manual Work: Automated discovery and monitoring processes eliminate time-consuming manual checks.
• Faster Incident Response: Centralized alerts and comprehensive device information allow for rapid response to potential issues.
• Enhanced OT Security: Strengthens the ability to defend against operational disruptions and cyber threats without impacting normal operating hours or daily operations.

From Blind Spots to Full Control: The Next Chapter of OT Security

With the successful deployment of MetaDefender OT Security across its 18 facility networks, the operator is now exploring additional capabilities of its multi-layered defense suite using OPSWAT’s MetaDefender for OT & CPS Protection suite. This successful implementation positions the company as a leader in OT security best practices in the Asia Pacific data center market, while providing a competitive edge in an increasingly security-conscious industry.