Physical Access Administration
Updates and Improvements
Written by Matthew Cullinan
Updated at July 16th, 2025
Table of Contents
Updates have been made to the Physical Access feature in the Portal to provide a better experience for your Physical Access Managers and Temporary Access Managers
Help! I am a Physical Access Manager or Temporary Access Manager, but am unable to administer badge access because the action buttons are disabled.
When this occurs, it is likely your profile in our physical security system is not yet complete. To remediate, please submit a ticket through the portal to have our Physical Security complete your profile.
Features & Enhancements
Notifications
Stay informed about critical events in your data center infrastructure with our new Physical Access Notifications system. This comprehensive notification platform gives you real-time visibility and customizable alerts for physical access activities across your facilities.
Event Monitoring
Monitor the following types of physical access events:
- Badge Usage: Track when badges are used for data center access
- Access Reports: Receive detailed reports of all access activity
Additional Events?
This notifications system provides the foundation for enhanced monitoring capabilities, with plans for additional event types and features in future releases.
Flexible Notification Configuration
- Location Control: Set notifications for all data centers or specific facilities where you have active products
- Targeted Monitoring: Configure alerts for specific badges, card readers, or comprehensive coverage
- Customizable Frequency: Select from live notifications, digest options (15-minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly), or pause notifications entirely
Smart Notification Features
- Intelligent Timing: Daily, weekly, and monthly digests are delivered after the reporting period has fully elapsed across all time zones
- Consolidated Reporting: Multi-location notifications are combined into single reports for easier management
- Privacy Protection: DataBank employee information is automatically masked with initials only
- No Empty Notifications: The system only sends notifications when there's actual activity to report
User-Friendly Management
- Easy Setup: Add new notifications with a simple form interface
- Quick Editing: Modify existing notifications with in-line editing controls
Who Can Use This Feature
Portal users with the Physical Access Manager role can manage notifications for their entire organization through the Physical Access Manager's new Notifications tab.
Getting Started
- Navigate to the Physical Access Manager and select the Notifications tab
- Use "Add Notification" to create your first notification
- Configure your preferred locations and targets.
- Set your desired notification frequency
- Save and start receiving notifications
Monthly Digest
One notification that is useful is the “Access Report for Data Center” which gives a comprehensive view of all physical access activity, changes to badgeholders, and badge holder names and access levels.
Filtering by Data Center
You may filter Badge Holders and Reporting for your data centers.
Badge Status Counts
The number of badges in each status is displayed.
Additionally, a Lost/Stolen badge status has been added to many of our Data Centers. Badges marked as Lost/Stolen are now visible and denoted as such. No action is permitted against these badges.
Add New Badge Holder
The Add New Badge Holder allows the Physical Access Manager or Temporary Access Manager to request new access.
What is the difference between a Physical Access Manager and Temporary Access Manager?
A Physical Access Manager is permitted grant access for up to 5 years, whereas a Temporary Access Manager can grant access for up to 30 days.
Set a Company Affiliation
When requesting access, you may optionally tag the access request with a Company Affiliation for reporting purposes.
Importing Badge Holders
You may now import a file of badge holders to request access for multiple people at once.
Cloning an Existing Badge Holder's Access
Take an existing badge holder and clone their access to a new person, or a list of people using a spreadsheet import.
Extending the Expiration Date and Time (Reactivation)
You may now reactivate a badge by extending its expiration date and time.
You may also do this for multiple badge holders:
Deactivating a Badge Holder
When deactivating a badge, you may either deactivate the badge immediately, or schedule the badge for deactivation by changing the expiration date and time.
If the Data Center supports it, you may also mark the badge as Lost/Stolen, which deactivates the badge immediately.
Deactivating Multiple Badges
You may select multiple badges and use the Bulk Actions option to deactivate them immediately.
You may also schedule a deactivation for a future date:
Cancelling Multiple Badge Requests
Select multiple badges that are Waiting for Pickup and cancel them.
Edit Access
Users may edit the expiration date and time, access levels, company affiliation for a badge holder. They may also enter in notes describing the changes.
Configurable Time Frame for Access Log reporting
You may now select a custom time frame for the Last Activity report.
The are additional shortcuts for the Last 30 days, Previous Quarter, and Current Quarter
Access Logs Export
The Data Center Physical Access Report “Export” file will be emailed to the logged in user. The report contains four tabs of data:
- A list of badge holders
- A list of the badge holders' access levels
- The access report containing all badge reads for the selected time frame.
- A legend describing the contents of each tab
View the Last Activity for a Badge Holder
From the Badge Holder's tab, select a badge and select View Access Log from the Actions menu.
New Role for Physical Access Report Viewer
A new role has been created called Physical Access Report Viewer that, when granted, allows the recipient of the role to view Access Logs.
The role is granted by the Portal Administrator in Edit User: Permissions tab.
When a user with the Physical Access Report Viewer logs in to the portal, they shall be able to view and export Physical Access Logs.
