NetBotz, Inc., the
leading global provider of IP-based intelligent physical security
solutions, today announced that NASA Ames Research Center at Moffet
Field, CA is now using NetBotz to protect its IT infrastructure from
environmental and physical threats that could jeopardize its IT
operations. Such threats include human error and intrusion as well as
a host of environmental factors such as inadequate airflow, extreme
temperatures, high humidity, water damage, amperage fluctuations and
more.

The NASA Ames Research Center specializes in research geared
toward creating new knowledge and new technologies that span the
spectrum of NASA interests. Among the various fields of research in
which scientists work are supercomputing and networking,
high-assurance software development, verification and validation,
automated reasoning, planning and scheduling, and human factors;
efforts in air traffic control and human factors; and astrobiology,
among other things.

George Alger is the IT Services Manager who oversees operational
aspect of the IT backbone that carries the Center’s infrastructure.
His responsibilities include ensuring the availability and uptime for
applications such as email; availability of the network operations;
support for electronic presentation sharing between Ames researchers
and NASA headquarters researchers based in Washington, D.C.; as well
as overseeing the Center’s phone, data and video operations. Because
network uptime is key to researchers, keeping the site available 24×7
is critical to what Alger does.

Recently, Alger looked to deploy a more powerful UPS system that
would provide enough power support for the five computer rooms Alger
directly managed.

As a result of that project, Alger realized he now needed a
solution that would monitor the new UPS: from the amount of hydrogen
the batteries were emitting to the hostile environmental conditions,
such as extreme heat and humidity that could jeopardize the
functioning of the UPS.

“NetBotz provided the environmental monitoring I needed,” said
Alger. “When I read about it, I felt it was the best solution because
it had most of the environmental monitoring capabilities I was looking
for. In addition, its ability to support external dry sensors meant I
could easily attach a hydrogen sensor to the monitoring appliance. You
start worrying when the presence of hydrogen hits the one percent
level,” Alger added. “So attaching a hydrogen sensor to the NetBotz
appliance meant I could set my alert threshold to alert me when the
hydrogen level in the room approached one percent. This meant we could
take action before any problems had time to develop.”

The NetBotz Intelligent Monitoring Solution consists of
Intelligent Monitoring Appliances with built-in environmental sensors
and an integrated color camera that can capture and store motion
events; Centralized Management and Monitoring; as well as Add-On
hardware (sensors) and software. A fully scalable solution, users can
deploy just monitoring appliances and get great value out of the
solution. Later, they can add centralized management as well as a
variety of Add-On Hardware and Software options.

Others involved in the project also felt that NetBotz, with its
built in camera, could help provide a measure of surveillance in the
computer rooms. And, Alger said, NetBotz, with its ability to “hear
and alert about” unattended alarms, could be the backup for the UPS
alarm in rooms in which no one would be there to hear that the back up
power was in danger of powering off.

According to Alger, days after installing the first few NetBotz,
there was an HVAC failure. NetBotz alerted him about the problem,
whose source was traced to a burning smell that had been sucked into
the HVAC system and pushed through out the computer rooms and forced a
shutdown. In addition, NetBotz has given him trending information that
enabled him to reset a temperature alarm to a more appropriate lower
level.

In addition to the five computer rooms Alger manages, there are
more than two dozen computer rooms around the base and each of the 90
buildings on the base has a communications closet.

“Some of these are ‘shared’ facilities, so a lot of different
people go in and out of them. Having a NetBotz watching over them will
tell us who’s been in them and what they did while they were there.
I’m planning on speaking to my security folks about NetBotz.”

About NASA Ames (http://www.arc.nasa.gov/about_ames/)

NASA Ames Research Center is located at Moffett Field, California
in the heart of “Silicon Valley”. Ames was founded December 20, 1939,
as an aircraft research laboratory by the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics (NACA) and in 1958 became part of National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA). Ames specializes in research geared
toward creating new knowledge and new technologies that span the
spectrum of NASA interests.

About NetBotz (www.netbotz.com)

NetBotz, Inc. is the leading global provider of intelligent
monitoring solutions that secure against physical threats. More than
1,700 organizations use the NetBotz solution, which prevents business
and financial losses attributed to network downtime by providing early
warning of conditions that threaten the integrity of a company’s data,
technical and equipment assets. Based in Austin, Texas, NetBotz is a
privately held company with funding from QuestMark Partners, SSM
Venture Partners, CenterPoint Ventures, Osprey Ventures, Hill Partners
Inc., and Sanchez Venture Partners. NetBotz has received the Best in
Show Award in the Network Management Category at NetWorld+Interop and
is a recipient of KPMG’s Start-up Standout Award.

NetBotz and RackBotz are registered trademarks of NetBotz
Corporation in the United States and other jurisdictions. WallBotz is
a trademark of NetBotz Corporation in the United States and other
jurisdictions. All other company and product names mentioned are used
only for identification and may be trademarks of their respective
companies.