Data processing centers are designed for continuity, but they remain exposed to one of the most disruptive and underestimated risks: water ingress. Small leaks in chilled-water lines, condensate overflows, blocked drainage, groundwater seepage, or sprinkler malfunctions can escalate quickly from minor incidents to equipment shutdowns, electrical hazards, and extended recovery activities. The operational impact is rarely limited to the affected room; it often propagates through redundancy layers, maintenance procedures, and safety protocols that force conservative decisions.

Early flood detection is not only about placing a sensor on the floor. What matters is dependable signal acquisition, deterministic alerting, and a clean integration path into existing operational systems so that the right team receives actionable information with context. In facilities where IT and building/utility systems coexist, a solution must also respect segregation requirements, avoid creating uncontrolled network bridges, and support secure data transport end-to-end.

This Nasatech solution combines robust water detection instrumentation, NTX devices (MQTT native by design), Nasatech LINK managed connectivity, and the optional Nasatech CORE Platform for alerting, dashboards, and integration. The result is a replicable architecture suitable for distributed facilities, unmanned technical rooms, and multi-site operations.

What this solution solves

Flooding and water leaks in data processing centers typically start as localized events: a drip under a CRAC unit, a leak in a valve station, water accumulation in a cable trench, or a sump pump failure. The challenge is that these events often occur in areas with limited visibility and may develop outside of staffed hours. Even when sensors exist, alarms can be fragmented across building systems, local panels, and ad-hoc notification methods that delay response.

This solution addresses three operational gaps:

  • Early detection with coverage in critical points such as perimeter walls, raised floors, trenches, pump rooms, and entry points for utilities.
  • Reliable alerting and escalation aligned with facility operations, including contextual information (zone, severity, and persistence) rather than raw sensor states.
  • Secure, structured integration into the customer’s environment (BMS/DCIM, SCADA, ticketing/CMMS, and incident workflows) without compromising IT/OT separation.

By focusing on early signal capture and structured integration, teams can react faster, isolate affected zones, and reduce secondary damage such as corrosion, contamination, or electrical incidents that often follow water ingress.

How it works

The solution is built around a clear data flow that fits modern facility architectures and scales from a single room to multi-site deployments:

Sensor/Instrumentation → NTX Device → Nasatech LINK → Nasatech CORE Platform (optional) → Customer Integration

Sensor/Instrumentation provides the physical detection layer. Depending on the facility layout and risk profile, typical choices include water leak detection cables (linear), point leak probes, sump level switches, or conductivity-based detectors in trays and trenches. Instrumentation is selected to match the environment (humidity, cleaning routines, cable routing constraints) and to ensure repeatable maintenance procedures.

NTX Device acts as the edge interface, acquiring sensor states and events, applying basic local logic (for example, de-bounce, persistence timers, and zone mapping), and publishing events using MQTT. The NTX device is designed for field deployment and focuses on deterministic acquisition and a clean telemetry model that is easy to consume in upstream systems.

Nasatech LINK provides managed connectivity, typically using low-power cellular where local network access is constrained or operationally costly. LINK can be used to standardize remote deployments, reduce the need for site-specific network changes, and keep connectivity governance consistent across multiple facilities.

Nasatech CORE Platform (optional) adds centralized visualization, alerting rules, and an integration layer. It is positioned as an open, scalable, and robust platform: it does not replace existing BMS/DCIM or SCADA systems; it complements them with unified event management, multi-site dashboards, and controlled integration paths.

Customer Integration is implemented through MQTT to a broker (customer-managed or centralized), APIs, and/or webhooks, depending on the target system. Typical recipients include DCIM/BMS alarm pipelines, SCADA/HMI views for utility rooms, CMMS work order creation, or incident management platforms used by facility operations.

From an architectural standpoint, the deployment aligns with Purdue principles by separating field acquisition (lower levels) from supervisory and enterprise layers. When ISA-95 alignment is relevant (e.g., structured maintenance workflows and asset hierarchies), the solution supports mapping of events to sites, buildings, rooms, and assets, enabling consistent escalation and reporting. For organizations adopting an Unified Namespace (UNS), MQTT topics and payloads can be structured to publish leak events as standard facility signals that other consumers can subscribe to without point-to-point integrations.

Nasatech components

NTX edge device (generic NTX line) is the on-site element that interfaces with leak detection instrumentation. It publishes telemetry and events using MQTT natively, facilitating a consistent integration pattern across sites. The device is suitable for deployment near technical zones (pump rooms, utility corridors, electrical rooms, raised floor perimeters) and can be configured to represent detection “zones” in a way that matches operational runbooks.

Nasatech LINK is the managed connectivity service that provides a controlled path from site to cloud or central infrastructure. It is especially valuable when the customer wants to avoid extending corporate networks into sensitive facility zones, or when sites are distributed and require standardized connectivity operations. LINK supports secure transport and helps keep connectivity and device fleet management operationally predictable.

Nasatech CORE Platform (optional) provides centralized supervision without locking the customer into a closed ecosystem. CORE is designed as an open platform for visualization, alerting, and integration, supporting multi-tenant or multi-site structures, role-based access, and integration endpoints that can feed existing operational systems. CORE can serve as the operational single pane of glass for leak events while still pushing events into the systems where teams actually execute response procedures.

Integration and scalability

Data processing centers frequently operate with strict separation between IT networks and facility/utility environments. This solution is designed to respect that separation while still delivering timely visibility.

MQTT-first integration enables a clean pattern: NTX publishes events to an MQTT broker, and downstream systems consume them. This fits well with UNS approaches, where signals are published once and consumed by multiple applications (dashboards, alerting engines, maintenance workflows) without custom point-to-point connections.

APIs and webhooks provide alternative or complementary integration paths. For example, a leak event can trigger a webhook that creates an incident ticket or work order, while MQTT feeds real-time dashboards. The solution supports integration with SCADA where applicable (utility rooms, pump stations) and with DCIM/BMS pipelines where alarm management is centralized.

IT/OT segmentation is considered from the start. Typical deployments place NTX devices in the facility/OT zone, with controlled egress through a managed connectivity path (LINK) or a segmented network route. The goal is to avoid unmanaged inbound connectivity into sensitive areas while still allowing centralized monitoring.

Transport security and access control are fundamental. MQTT sessions are protected using TLS, and access is controlled with authenticated clients and least-privilege permissions. Operationally, this means devices can be restricted to publish only to their allowed topic namespace, while subscriber systems are granted read access based on role and scope. This approach reduces lateral movement risk and aligns with security governance typical of critical environments.

Scalability is achieved by design: adding new zones is a matter of extending instrumentation and registering additional NTX endpoints. Multi-site expansions keep the same telemetry model, the same topic structure, and the same integration contracts, reducing the effort required to standardize operations across facilities.

Where environments are potentially classified or include hazardous areas (for example, utility or chemical storage adjacent to facility infrastructure), the solution can be planned with appropriate equipment selection. ATEX considerations are addressed prudently during engineering to ensure the instrumentation and installation method are compatible with the site classification requirements.

Operational benefits

Faster response with clearer context by turning raw sensor activations into structured events tied to zones and operational escalation rules. This reduces ambiguity during incident triage.

Improved traceability through centralized event histories and acknowledgment workflows (when CORE is used), supporting post-incident reviews and preventive maintenance improvements.

Reduced operational risk by identifying leaks earlier, enabling isolation actions before water reaches electrical distribution points, underfloor cabling, or critical equipment rows.

Consistent multi-site operations using a replicable architecture: the same NTX-to-MQTT approach, the same integration pattern, and consistent governance across facilities.

Better coordination between teams by integrating leak events into the systems used daily (CMMS, incident management, SCADA/BMS/DCIM). This supports disciplined response procedures rather than ad-hoc messaging.

Use cases

1) Raised floor perimeter leak detection

Linear detection cable is deployed along perimeter walls and around cooling and distribution zones. NTX publishes zone-level events to MQTT, enabling immediate alerts and mapping to exact areas for on-site intervention.

2) Sump pit and pump room supervision

Level switches or float sensors detect abnormal water levels, while additional point probes detect spillovers near pump skids. Events are escalated to maintenance workflows and can also be visualized in SCADA if the pump room is already supervised.

3) Utility entry points and cable trench monitoring

Detection points are placed at pipe penetrations, drainage interfaces, and trench low points. The solution provides early warning for seepage or backflow events that otherwise go unnoticed until water spreads.

4) Condensate overflow detection near cooling units

Point sensors detect early accumulation in drip trays or under units. Alerts can route directly to the on-call facilities team, and repeated alarms can be correlated to maintenance needs such as blocked lines or failing pumps.

Request a quote

Nasatech delivers this early flood detection solution as a replicable architecture based on NTX devices with native MQTT, Nasatech LINK managed connectivity, and the optional CORE Platform for visualization, alerting, and integration. The scope is typically defined by zones (rooms, corridors, trenches, pump rooms), the chosen instrumentation method (linear cable vs. point detection), and the required integration endpoints (MQTT broker, CMMS/ERP, DCIM/BMS/SCADA).

Share your facility layout, critical zones, existing monitoring systems, and security constraints (IT/OT segmentation requirements, preferred MQTT broker strategy, and alerting workflows). Nasatech will propose a standardized bill of materials and an integration-ready architecture that fits your operating model and scales across sites.