User manual | XO Communications Data Center Gives Customers

XO
Communications
A Schlage biometrics access control
case study
How can you give data center customers
the protection of high security and the
convenience of fast, easy access?
Get the HandKey II!
“We needed a system that would let us identify hundreds of customers
without giving them badges that they could lose”
- Amar Virk, Facility Manager, XO Communications
XO Communications is one of the world’s leading providers of broadband
communications services, including local and long-distance voice, Internet
access, Virtual Private Networking (VPN), Ethernet, Wavelength, Hosting
and Integrated voice and data services. Through growth and mergers, the
company now has data center colocation facilities located across the
U.S. Although a card system controls overall access to the facilities, XO
management needed a way to control customer access that would be
more user-specific and easy to update.
The answer was to install HandKey® II readers for secondary access control.
Facility Manager Amar Virk says, “We needed a secondary access control
system that we could use only for customers. We didn’t feel confident
giving them cards that could be lost or stolen.”
Statistics
Industry: Broadband
Application: Access control
Biometric: HandKey®
HandReaders: 10
Users: 1000+
Geography: United States
Since installing HandKey® readers at its first facility, XO has expanded them to several
other locations, with plans to add the system at its data centers throughout the U.S. Now,
once enrolled, a user simply enters the facility using the card and places his or her hand
in the HandKey to make a positive identity verification. Virk explains, “Once a person is
enrolled in the HandNet software and we create a similar account in the primary access
control system, their hand actually acts as a badge. The HandKey reader compares the
hand template with the PIN number and, if it matches, sends a
26-bit Wiegand output representing the badge number to the primary system. The
primary system then decides whether the badge is allowed entry.”
Virk says that the system administrator now can simply enable or disable an account to
control access by a specific customer. “We don’t need to have the person who manages
the system also taking care of all the customer traffic,” he explains. “We put in a 6-hour
window after which authorization is automatically disabled, so we don’t have anyone in
our data centers who shouldn’t be there.”
PC with HandNet
for Windows Software
Site 1
RS-485
HandReader 1
with Ethernet option
HandReader 2
HandReader 3
HandReader X
Site 2
RS-485
HandReader 1
with Ethernet option
HandReader 2
HandReader 3
HandReader X
Site X
XO Communications
Each of the 10 sites has one Ethernet HandReader, with additional HandReaders
connected to it via RS-485 “daisy chain,” using twisted pair cable. This configuration
minimizes hardware costs; only one Ethernet module is needed at each location.
HandKey® is a registered trademark of Allegion.
About Allegion
Allegion (NYSE: ALLE) creates peace of mind by pioneering safety and security. As a $2 billion
provider of security solutions for homes and businesses, Allegion employs more than 8,000
people and sells products in more than 120 countries across the world. Allegion comprises
27 global brands, including strategic brands CISA®, Interflex®, LCN®, Schlage® and Von Duprin®.
For more information, visit www.allegion.com/us or call 888.758.9823.
© 2014 Allegion
006464 Rev. 05/2014
allegion.com/us

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