T-Systems Building Massive Cloud Data Center in Germany

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Huge cloud data centers of Deutsche Telekom are under construction in Germany. This model provides a look at the exterior design. (Image: Deutsche Telekom)

Spanning the size of 30 soccer fields, the data center campus for Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems is under construction and is being hailed as Germany's largest data center. The facility in Biere, Saxony-Anhal,  will be the 90th data center built by T-Systems.

Being developed to meet high demand for cloud services in Germany, the new facility, together with the data center already running in Magdeburg, will form a "TwinCore" of two facilities to offer a high level of data and operational security. Upon completion of the last expansion stage at both locations, the data center space will span an area of almost eight soccer fields (approximately 430,000 square feet)  - more than in any other data center across Germany, according to T-Systems. The total campus will be 150,000 square meters, or about 1.61 million square feet.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's largest integrated telecommunications companies with almost 130 million mobile customers, 33 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of June 30, 2012).

In Magdeburg, T-Systems already operates one of the largest data centers in eastern Germany. With the start of operations of the twin data center in Biere in 2014, the IT and telecommunications group will satisfy the rapidly growing global demand for cloud services. Some 600 corporate customers use these new IT services offered by T-Systems, including global businesses such as Shell and Daimler.

Design Leverages Joint Research With Intel

"Companies that decide to use cloud computing pay attention to high availability and data protection,"  said Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, member of the Board of Management at T-Systems. "With the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), Germany already has a clear advantage in terms of location. Moreover, we ensure the business operations of groups thanks to our TwinCore data centers and a zero error strategy. The new construction in Biere will become part of our global supply and production network. On the basis of this network with data centers in America, Asia, Africa and Europe, we are providing our customers with the most modern IT and cloud technology across the globe."

T-Systems says the new facility will leverage energy-savings techniques developed at Data Center 2020, a research facility in Munich operated jointly by T-Systems and U.S. chipmaker Intel. Researchers at the facility have tested for various scenarios involving ambient temperature, air humidity, chilled water supply temperature and flow rate of the fans. In order to simulate computing centres with different room heights, the test laboratory has a lift-slab concrete floor, whose height can be adjusted. The power for operating the Biere data center is "climate-neutral," the company said.

A group of companies, comprised of Hannover Leasing as investor and Ed.Züblin AG and M+W GmbH as joint building venture, is building the new data center which received several million euros in support from the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Financing is being carried out via a bank consortium under the direction of Bayern LB. T-Systems will lease the data center once it is ready and will make further investments amounting to the mid-range double-digit millions of euros on average every three years in further modernization.