Marathon Helps Secure Rikers IslandMarathon Helps Secure Rikers Island

It's not that sensors surrounding New York's maximum-security Rikers Island prison can be set off by the odd opossum. One of the more serious problems at Rikers is that the security system too often fails altogether to register movement it's designed to report.

That's why the New York Corrections Department is preparing to deploy a high-availability system for Windows-based Dell servers all connected on a local-area network. The agency is buying Marathon Technologies Corp.'s Assured Availability firmware for $30,000. Norment Security Group is being paid between $600,000 and $700,000 to update a perimeter system that includes central control, sensors, and cabling.

Unlike facilities in other states that shock potential escapees, Rikers' systems are designed merely to notify a control center when someone is trying to jump or cut the fence. Sensors throughout the perimeter are supposed to send a signal back to control when contact of any sort is made.

"Rikers wants 100% confidence that the control system is running," says Kevin Robison, CEO at Norment in Montgomery, Ala. "Marathon is plug-and-play overlay technology and we didn't have to do anything funny." Marathon will unveil the Rikers deal Monday.

Marathon's product turns standard Intel-based servers into a high-availability system that can keep information running 99.99% of the time. If something takes down one node, others keep running. Administrators will be able to replace failed components without having to shut down the whole system.