The University of Potsdam is a teaching institution at 3 locations and the largest university in the state of Brandenburg. Currently, approximately 22,000 students are registered at the university, spread over 170 different courses of study. The university places particular emphasis on internationality and maintains partnerships with institutions around the world. Research focuses on cognitive sciences, data sciences, earth and environmental sciences, and evolutionary biology. Both the administration of the university and the smooth running of numerous research and teaching applications of the faculties and the resulting data volumes require a functioning and highly available IT infrastructure.
Since the IT infrastructure had previously been located at different sites and had outgrown the requirements, Data Center Group (DCG) was commissioned as general planner for the technical building equipment (TGA) of a new data center and IT infrastructure under one roof. Under the client, the state of Brandenburg, an interim data center was to be implemented to bridge the gap for a large-scale data center.
The data center was built in the existing building and during ongoing operations in accordance with DIN EN 50600. The new location for the data center presented a particular challenge: An old transformer building was to become the new home for IT. However, since the building's surroundings are protected as historical monuments, a number of things had to be taken into account: For example, the entrances to the building could not be changed, and due to a lack of space and the protection of historical monuments, an emergency diesel generator was placed next to the building as a compact. A steel platform was installed on the roof of the transformer building to accommodate the refrigeration components with redundant refrigeration and supply lines. The adjacent building was also renovated in terms of fire protection in the facade area on doors and windows, again taking into account the requirements of historic preservation for the entire building ensemble.
The project was handed over to the university on schedule at the end of 2022, despite additional hurdles such as the Corona pandemic and supply bottlenecks.
"Although data center construction challenges such as historic preservation compliance and construction during ongoing operations made the job more difficult, Data Center Group exceeded our expectations. The project was completed within the approved construction cost and on schedule. As a result, we now unite our entire IT infrastructure under one roof," says Rolf Adams, Head of Infrastructure Network at the University of Potsdam.
DCG combined all planning activities with its own staff and was thus able to act holistically as a reliable partner for the project in order to successfully implement the object, structural and technical planning of this very special IT infrastructure.
Thus, the University of Potsdam can relax in the future and rely on its optimized, highly available and secure IT infrastructure in the transformer building.
Source Title Picture: Rigorius (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Potsdam_Uni-Haus-12_20220905_123604.jpg)
