A special infrastructure requires a special IT infrastructure. "Mettlach 2.0." is the title of a special major project. Villeroy & Boch, a globally active traditional company with an impressive success story, is redesigning its corporate headquarters. The site project is scheduled for completion in 2020. Back in 2010, the international consulting and auditing firm Rödl & Partner entered into a cooperation with the ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch in the field of information technology.
Rödl & Partner is also a globally active company with 4,700 employees. It has its own branch office in the Saarland municipality of Mettlach. The company was looking for a particularly efficient and sustainable IT solution for this location and an experienced partner to implement it. The Data Center Group was able to convince here with its innovative concept and perfect time management.
The company headquarters of the ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch is an impressive site. History was made here. The site, which covers a total of 6.5 hectares, poses many challenges for the IT infrastructure: The Old Abbey located there has been the headquarters of the ceramics manufacturer for more than 200 years. Together with the IT service provider Rödl IT Operations GmbH, which operates the data center for Villeroy & Boch, a suitable solution for a new backup data center was sought in the course of the redevelopment.
"Together with Villeroy und Boch, we made a conscious decision to build our own data center because, according to our calculations and taking connectivity into account, building our own was cheaper than a long-term carrier lease.
Roland Leick " Associate Partner, Head of Telecommunication and Data Center Competence Center
A total of 1,500 users at the Villeroy & Boch campus require a twin-core connection between the two data centers and synchronous mirroring. CAD and development data must be processed securely and quickly, while data from the administration and production lines and SAP Finance must be available without restriction. Security and availability are top priorities, along with sustainability and efficiency. When Villeroy & Boch's construction management team planned a new technical building, space was allocated for a new backup data center into which IT would move after the old backup data center was demolished.
In order to meet the high demands of the project, it was important to find a suitable partner for the implementation. It was clear that an experienced provider was sought who could execute the project as a general contractor and thus coordinate all the trades. Several offers were obtained in advance and examined in detail. Roland Leick, Head of the Competence Center "IT Services" at Rödl IT, also visited several reference properties of the Data Center Group at the beginning of the project in order to get an on-site impression of data centers that had already been realized.
Focus on efficiency and sustainability Together with facility management, the experts from the Data Center Group discussed several strategies and possible options. Planners examined the initial situation and sounded out various strategies. In the end, a data center including an IT security room from Data Center Products (a subsidiary of the Data Center Group) emerged as the best solution, meeting the requirements for availability and security. A special feature on the site played into the cards of the Data Center Group's team of planners.
This is because an autonomous water reservoir is located there. This is where the experts came in and developed a particularly innovative and sustainable solution based on the existing infrastructure: The water from the reservoir is used to cool the data center, and a cistern system supplies the data center with cold water. Measuring devices ensure permanent monitoring of the temperature. A chiller provides backup in the event of a failure. The price-performance ratio and the great confidence in the competence of the Data Center Group due to the conception worked out to the last detail and detailed consultations convinced the customer and finally led to the order.
"The planning speed was another challenge of the project, which was mastered by the experts of Data Center Group. The construction schedule was the basis. Our expectations were met to our complete satisfaction," says Roland Leick.
A room-in-room solution was chosen with DC IT Room Quartzite 9.3, which provides comprehensive protection against all major physical threats. The scope of supply included a refrigeration system fed by a water reservoir (60 KW redundant incl. air conditioning for the equipment room), an emergency backup power system of 160 KW, early fire detection, cold aisle containment for the racks for optimal cooling via the raised floor, and DC IT monitoring by the DCM agent, which monitors limit values and immediately reports their exceedance to IT. Conclusion: An all-round secure, sustainable and efficient solution.
The customer's expectations were also met to their complete satisfaction in terms of time management. "The Data Center Group convinced us with its high level of technical competence. It was the only company to deliver the desired complete package. Analyses, variants and models were presented and rounded off the picture of a closed and consistent solution. The maintenance of our data center is also completely in the hands of the Data Center Group," Roland Leick sums up. Ecologically built data center operation Data Center Products' room-in-room solution created an efficient and highly secure area with a high level of stability and ecologically built data center operation.
Roland Leick from Rödl & Partner and Pascal Marx from Villeroy & Boch draw a positive conclusion: "The consistently competent, detailed planning, the sustainable solution through the use of existing infrastructure, trusting cooperation and rapid implementation with the Data Center Group as a competent partner were convincing.
