This article contains answers to frequently asked questions regarding the new Avigilon EU Alta Access.

 Questions and Answers

1. Why did we add a European region for our cloud service?

   1. Hosting in the EU provides benefits both in data privacy (with data resident in Germany, a country with some of the strongest privacy laws) as well as performance. Customers in the EU will have a snappier experience with the Avigilon Alta portal and mobile app when they are using the Avigilon Alta EU region rather than the US region due to reduced network latency.

2. When is the official launch?

   1. The official launch is scheduled for 12/01/2022.

3. Where is the Avigilon Alta Access European Cloud hosted?

   1. Frankfurt, Germany

4. What URL do I use to access the EU Alta Access?

   1. https://control.eu.openpath.com – In the future, we may unify logins to http://control.openpath.com, but customers would still be able to go directly to https://control.eu.openpath.com if they know they are intending to log into an EU-hosted account.

5. How can I get access to the EU Alta Access?

   1. Existing partners can fill out this form, https://opcx.org/eucc. This form will ask for the necessary information we’ll need to set up a new parent org in the EU instance. Once the org is created, the dealer can start creating new child accounts which will automatically be provisioned under the parent’s region. New partners will have the option to choose where they want their org to be set up during the onboarding process.

6. Can I manage all my accounts in one Partner Center?

   1. To maintain strict data residency we currently offer a regional-specific Partner Center, to not mix customer data and to potentially transfer data outside the region.

7. By using the European Cloud is my organization GDPR compliant?

   1. While data residency is a component of GDPR compliance, GDPR compliance is a partnership between the processor, Avigilon Alta, and the controller, our end customer.

8. Can the Avigilon Alta technical support team view my data?

   1. End customers can control the permission within Alta Access to allow ‘VIEW’ access for the Avigilon Alta technical support team. Such control is located at Home > Administration > Account.

9. If I provide ‘VIEW’ access to the Avigilon Alta technical support team, would data be transferred outside of the EU?

   1. Avigilon Alta offers technical support from multiple call centers in Europe and the United States. Data transferred to the United States is compliant with GDPR by using the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC)

10. Will Avigilon Alta Access and the Mobile App be localized in different languages?

    1. Yes, this is in development and should be available in Q1 for multiple European languages

11. Can I migrate from the US Cloud to the EU Cloud?

    1. Migrating from one Cloud instance to another requires all ACUs and Mobile credentials to be reprovisioned to the new Cloud infrastructure. Currently, we are reviewing and approving such migrations on a case-by-case basis. Please contact the Avigilon Alta Customer Ops Team for additional information via https://opcx.org/contact-ops.

12. Does this change the API endpoints?

    1. Yes, the APIs for the EU region will need to go to api.eu.openpath.com

13. Have there been other changes to the APIs?

    1. Everything is the same except for the API domain (api.eu.openpath.com rather than api.openpath.com). Tech integration partners would need to be aware of the new multi-region reality. Their internal data model might need to hold org id + region (or API endpoint) rather than merely org id so that their system can talk to the right endpoint on behalf of a given org. There is a new API (available from BOTH api.openpath.com and api.eu.openpath.com), GET /cloudServerRegions, which returns a programmatically consumable list of available cloud regions (currently just the two, US and EU, but we might add more). If a tech partner wants to produce a dropdown menu for their customers to select their Avigilon Alta region, they could use this API to populate the items to be shown in the dropdown - this way they would not have to change any code if we later add a 3rd region.

14. Is Avigilon Alta GDPR compliant?

    1. GDPR compliance requires a partnership between the processor and controller. We do maintain all our legal obligations under GDPR including using Standard Contractual Clauses as provided by the regulation to transfer data when needed. Customers must sign our Data Privacy Addendum which includes the SCC’s. Also, our instance is in Germany which has some of the most strict privacy laws.

15. What data is stored in Alta Access?

    1. Data that will be stored in either the US or EU cloud include: 

       • Data that you input, import, or synchronize into the system about your users. Avigilon Alta only requires user email addresses. 

       • Data related to equipment in your building including information about your building doors, elevators, parking gates, turnstiles, and any system or schedule

       • Rules and permissions on access levels and access schedules

       • Activity log data related to which resource was accessed, or attempted to be accessed. 

       • System health data related to the health of the hardware and service

       • Portal audit data

16. Will there be any data leaving the region?

    1. If you access your data from outside the region, by viewing, editing, or downloading the data, you are technically reporting your data outside of the region. For example, if a Facility Manager in Canada is managing the system, by viewing the data from Canada they could be exporting user information from the European Cloud to Canada. 

       Besides data that is used by US-based technical support, the only other data leaving the region is 

       • Live video streaming from the Video Reader Pro. This data will be routed to a European server after launch. 

       • Billing information when purchasing items from our store. This includes shipping and payment info.

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