Safety, security and energy-efficiency at data centre

February 28, 2014 5:30 am

Data centres are critical facilities in most industries and therefore face special challenges – from managing complex infrastructures to optimising energy efficiency and meeting security and operating requirements
The City of Zurich’s Centre of Competence (CoC) for IT moved into its new main location in Zurich Albisrieden. The centrepiece of the new facility is Europe’s most advanced, safe, secure and energy-efficient data centre. A complete single-source solution from Siemens provides security for people and assets through fully integrated, easy-to-operate fire safety, security and building automation systems.
Data centres are critical facilities in most industries and therefore face special challenges – from managing complex infrastructures to optimising energy efficiency and meeting security and operating requirements. Integrated, custom-tailored solutions and services play an important role in identifying and handling a wide range of incidents that could impact the availability, process continuity and profitability of a data centre.
Total building solution from a single sourceThe OIZ, as the City of Zurich’s CoC for IT is known, provides essential IT services for Zurich’s municipal administration and supports cross-department IT projects. To improve the efficiency of operations and reduce costs, more than one hundred server rooms around the city, as well as the old data centre, were closed and consolidated in two new data centres in Albisrieden and Hagenholz, which are several kilometres apart in different parts of the city. The two-location strategy minimises any potential effects from natural hazards and provides reliability and availability in the event of a natural disaster. If one data centre fails, the other ensures that important applications continue to run and prevents the loss of data.
Operational reliability is a major requirement for the OIZ: Certified as “trusted site infrastructure” in accordance with TÜVit Level 3, the two data centres are monitored 24/7 and are equipped with numerous safety and security measures against unauthorised access, fire, lightning as well as the effects of earthquakes and flooding. Building access is provided on a role-based model. The server rooms utilise single-entry access control systems and biometric authentication. Because of the high security standards, several renowned Swiss banks decided to move their own data centres into the City of Zurich’s data centres.
The new data centres meet the highest standards for operational reliability, availability and energy efficiency, and are among Europe’s most state-of-the-art facilities. Both data centres use the most advanced technologies. For the Albisrieden site, the new OIZ main location with 500 employees, Siemens Building Technologies Division designed and delivered a Total Building Solution with fully integrated fire safety, security and building automation systems. The single-source approach not only allowed for consistent design, planning and implementation of the data centre, taking into account the increased security-related requirements, the OIZ as an operator also benefits from having one contact for all issues, for example, in the event of malfunctions.

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