Summary
Microsoft's global security operations centers (GSOCs) dramatically improved their
ability to respond to emergencies around the world by deploying a new security application
using Visual Fusion. The application integrates data from local security staff,
live video feeds, alarm system messages, and Web feeds in a map-based view.
Situation
To monitor its interests and facilities around the world, Microsoft maintains global
security operations centers (GSOCs) in Redmond, Washington; Reading, England; and
Hyderabad, India.
Workers at these centers are constantly monitoring 700 Microsoft properties (sales
offices, regional headquarters, data centers, etc.) and thousands of employees.
Streaming into the centers are live video from 8,500 security cameras, alarm messages
from over ten thousand card readers, and news feeds from around the world. In this
mass of data, workers need to spot events—from building break-ins to natural disasters
and political upheavals—that may affect Microsoft facilities and personnel.
With so much data coming in from multiple, unconnected systems, it was a challenge
to determine which facilities might be affected by a given event and to bring the
right people into the loop. To react more quickly, security workers needed better
tools.
Solution
Using Visual Fusion, SharePoint, and Bing Maps, Microsoft implemented a new application
that gives security workers instant access to the information they need to evaluate
risks and take action. This application integrates information previously available
through many different technologies in a single view. On a single map and timeline,
workers can now view camera feeds, card reader alarms, and other building systems
in the same view with feeds for news, weather, and traffic. Additional Web feeds
can be added at will. This united view puts the feeds in context with geography,
time, and each other.
Also available from the map is information on each Microsoft facility, including
location, number of workers, emergency contacts and more. Personnel at each location
maintain this data using InfoPath forms; for each update, the new details are automatically
sent to SharePoint, so up-to-date information in always available.
Through Visual Fusion, the locations of facilities and events are plotted on an
online world map (Bing Maps). For a major news event anywhere in the world, security
workers can locate the nearest company facilities, and click on those icons to retrieve
the details the local security people have submitted. This allows them to begin
working right away with employees at the affected locales.
The Visual Fusion application unites internal security data, live video feeds, alarm
system alerts, Web news feeds and more, for a comprehensive security picture
“Before updating its GSOC systems, Microsoft's security operations used about 60
proprietary technologies that didn't interoperate,” said Brian Tuskan, Senior Director
of Microsoft Global Security. “Now, all but two are integrated into a single management
and alarm system.”
Benefits
By mapping the location of Microsoft properties, the application makes it easy to
see at a glance which facilities may be affected by an emergency. By making all
security information available from the same system, it allows workers to react
more quickly. For example, when an earthquake hit India last in 2009, security workers
were able to zoom into the epicenter of the quake and discover two Microsoft offices
within 50 miles. Using data from the system, security personnel immediately began
making calls to account for all workers.
By uniting all security information in a single, map-based view, the system lets
Microsoft respond to threats, summon emergency services, and assure worker safety
around the world.