DCTR-13

Does every data center where the institution's data will reside have multiple telephone company or network provider entrances to the facility?

Explanation

This question is asking whether each data center that will store the institution's data has multiple connections to telephone companies or network service providers entering the facility. In simpler terms, it's asking if the data centers have redundant network connections from different providers. This is important for several reasons: 1. Redundancy: If one network connection fails (due to physical damage, provider outage, etc.), the data center can continue operating through the alternate connection. 2. Disaster Recovery: Multiple network paths help ensure business continuity during outages or disasters. 3. Risk Mitigation: Having a single point of failure for network connectivity represents a significant risk to operations. This question is being asked in a security assessment because network availability is a critical component of overall security posture. If a data center loses network connectivity, it could impact: - Access to critical systems and data - Security monitoring and incident response capabilities - Ability to apply security patches and updates - Overall business operations When answering this question, you should: 1. Confirm whether all your data centers have multiple network provider entrances 2. Provide specific details about the redundancy design if possible 3. If some data centers don't have this redundancy, explain any compensating controls 4. Be honest about limitations while highlighting your risk mitigation strategies

Example Responses

Example Response 1

Yes, all of our data centers that will house the institution's data have multiple telecommunications and network provider entrances Our primary data centers in Virginia and Oregon are carrier-neutral facilities with at least three independent network provider entrances each (including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink) These connections enter the buildings through diverse physical paths to eliminate single points of failure We maintain active-active configurations across these connections with automatic failover capabilities, ensuring continuous network availability even if one provider experiences an outage.

Example Response 2

Yes, our company utilizes AWS data centers for hosting all institution data AWS designs their data centers with multiple telecom provider entrances as part of their infrastructure redundancy strategy According to AWS documentation, each Availability Zone has independent connections to multiple Tier-1 transit providers through physically separate entry points to the facilities Our architecture leverages multiple Availability Zones within each region to ensure network resilience We can provide AWS compliance documentation confirming these redundancy measures upon request.

Example Response 3

No, our secondary backup data center in Phoenix currently has only a single network provider entrance from Cox Communications While our primary data center in Dallas does have multiple provider entrances (AT&T and Spectrum), we acknowledge this represents a potential single point of failure for the backup facility We mitigate this risk through several measures: 1) The Phoenix facility is used only for cold storage backups, not production workloads; 2) We maintain 4-hour SLAs with Cox for emergency repairs; 3) We're currently implementing a second diverse network connection expected to be completed within 6 months In the interim, we've implemented enhanced monitoring of the single connection to detect any degradation quickly.

Context

Tab: Infrastructure
Category: Datacenter