Automatic backups and updates: a condominium's system can't depend on a technician

What's at stake

An access control system holds a lot of accumulated work: hundreds of records, photos, cards, fingerprints, groups, invitations and the history of every entry. Losing it means re-enrolling the entire condominium, with lines at the front desk, annoyed residents and weeks of rework for the staff.

And broken hardware isn't the only risk. A record deleted by mistake, a terminal wiped at the wrong moment or a faulty update also call for a way to go back. With a recent copy that's easy to restore, the damage is undone in minutes.

That's why the backup isn't a technical detail. It's part of the service, just as much as the door opening.

What a good backup looks like

Not every copy really protects you. A backup worthy of the name has a few traits:

• Automatic and daily, without relying on someone to remember.
• Also stored outside the building. A copy that lives on the same device disappears along with it.
• Encrypted before it leaves the condominium, because it contains personal and biometric data.
• Several versions kept, so you can go back to an earlier point if a mistake is only noticed days later.
• Easy to restore. A copy nobody knows how to put back is a promise, not a guarantee.
• Monitored: if the upload fails, someone needs to hear about it the same day.

Updating is necessary, and risky when done by hand

All software needs updates, whether to fix bugs, tighten security or add new features. In many condominiums, though, updating depends on a technician coming on site, so it simply doesn't happen. The system ages, piles up known problems and becomes more exposed every month.

The opposite approach carries risk too. Updating automatically, without care, can take the system down because of the update itself. The question isn't whether to update, but how the update is done.

What a good update looks like

A safe update follows a few steps, always in the same order:

• It arrives without anyone having to step in on site.
• It's tested on a few installations first, and only then released to all of them.
• It checks the integrity of the files before installing.
• It makes a copy of the data before it starts.
• Once installed, it checks that the system is responding again.
• It rolls back to the previous version on its own if that check fails.
• It doesn't affect the doors: the terminals keep working throughout the process.

The day the hardware breaks

Sooner or later, some piece of equipment will fail. The difference between a scare and a serious problem lies in what exists outside of it: a recent copy of the data, stored somewhere else, and the keys needed to open that copy on new hardware.

It's worth asking your vendor what the plan is for that day, step by step. If the answer is vague, the risk stays with the condominium.

Questions for your vendor

Whether you are signing a contract or reviewing the system you have today, these questions help you gauge the risk:

• Where are the backups kept, and how often are they made?
• How many days of backups are kept?
• If the condominium's equipment broke today, how would the data come back?
• How do updates arrive, and what happens if one of them fails?
• Is anyone alerted when a backup or an update goes wrong?

How Abriu handles it

With Abriu, the hub (the small computer installed in the condominium) makes a full backup every day in the early morning hours and keeps the 14 most recent on the device itself. Each automatic backup is also encrypted with a password and sent to cloud storage dedicated to that condominium, where copies are kept for 30 days by default. If the upload fails, the dashboard's administrators get an email, and our monitoring center is alerted too. A backup can be restored from the dashboard in a few seconds, and the current data is saved first. If the hub breaks, a new one is installed and the backup stored in the cloud is restored onto it.

Updates arrive on their own. Each new version runs first at a pilot installation and is only then released to the other condominiums. Before installing, the hub checks the integrity of the files and makes a copy of the database; afterward, it checks whether the system is responding again and, if it is not, restores the previous version with the data as it was. During the switch, the dashboard is usually offline for 10 to 30 seconds, and the terminals keep unlocking the doors as usual.