As organizations grow and expand across multiple locations, the complexity of securing physical access and managing biometric identities grows with it. That’s where MAS/SAS architecture comes in—a powerful framework that ensures scalability, redundancy and a reliable user experience in BioConnect Enterprise deployments.
Whether you're an IT decision-maker, systems integrator, or enterprise security leader, understanding MAS/SAS is essential to designing scalable and resilient biometric access systems.
Let’s break it down.
What is MAS/SAS?
MAS/SAS stands for Master Application Server (MAS) and Satellite Application Server (SAS). It’s a hub-and-spoke architecture that BioConnect uses to deploy its Enterprise platform in large or distributed environments.
Here’s how it works:
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MAS serves as the central node of the system and where the PAC integration is managed —the orchestrator for identity and credential information.
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SAS units are deployed at regional sites or on local networks and synchronize with the MAS to provide local processing and device management.
This allows thousands of biometric readers across multiple locations to stay connected and synchronized with the most up to date users, credentials and biometric templates.
Why It Matters: Key Benefits of MAS/SAS
✅ Resiliency and Uptime
With MAS/SAS, biometric operations don’t grind to a halt if a MAS or SAS server goes down.
If a MAS server disconnects, SAS nodes retain a local copy of essential data—users, credentials and biometric templates—allowing authentication and access events to continue. If a SAS server disconnects, readers continue operating from local memory in the event of a SAS server issue. All transactions and logs are stored and re-synchronized when connection is re-established.
✅ Scalability and Flexible System Design
Whether due to scale requirements, or to mirror your PAC IT architecture, the MAS/SAS architecture provides flexibility to meet your business needs. A MAS/SAS system distributes traffic across multiple nodes. This improves speed, reduces latency, and ensures faster access for employees and visitors—whether they’re at HQ or a satellite office halfway around the country.
✅ Reliable, Consistent User Experience
A critical benefit of the MAS/SAS architecture is that it allows your users to Enroll Once & Go Anywhere, regardless of the number of readers or servers you have deployed. No more re-enrolling at every location or having inconsistent authentication experiences by location. This saves a significant amount of time for customers, guards, and administrators.
✅ GDPR and CCPA Regulatory Compliance Acts
The MAS/SAS BioConnect architecture is built to be compliant with GDPR, CCPA and other regulatory compliance acts. The model provides users the ability to track and enforce user consent, automatic template deletion, expire users and a user's right to delete any biometric templates as soon as they request it.
A Real-World Example
Imagine a global organization with five data centers across North America and Europe. Each location manages its own biometric access points—but all must be synced with a central directory of users and credentials.
With MAS/SAS:
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Each site deploys a local SAS, which handles authentications and biometric enrollments on-site.
- A new user enrolls their biometric information at the SAS. It gets pushed to the MAS, which subsequently distributes it to the other SAS servers.
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The centralized MAS syncs all identity data from the central PAC system and biometric enrollments, pushing updates to each SAS in real-time.
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If one SAS loses its connection to the MAS, it continues operating independently.
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When the connection is restored, the SAS syncs any changes automatically—no manual intervention needed.
Architecture Overview: What’s Under the Hood?
BioConnect’s MAS/SAS setup uses a lightweight, Java-based replication engine to manage data flow between the MAS and SAS units. HTTPS communication ensures security during sync, and all data is encrypted in transit.
Here’s what gets replicated:
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Biometric templates
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Cardholder information
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Card credentials
It’s designed for scalability, security, and flexibility, allowing deployments to scale from a single site to hundreds—all managed through a unified BioConnect Enterprise platform.
Final Thoughts: MAS/SAS as Your Foundation for Secure Growth
As organizations expand, so must their physical security infrastructure. MAS/SAS provides the backbone for secure, scalable, and resilient biometric deployments—ensuring uptime, performance, and compliance across all sites.
At BioConnect, we designed our Enterprise platform around this architecture to help our customers unlock intelligent identity management at scale.
Want help planning your MAS/SAS architecture or understanding replication licensing?
👉 Talk to our team or schedule a deployment consultation