The state fire school Geretsried (Staatliche Feuerwehrschule Geretsried, SFSG) is an authority subordinate to the Bavarian State Interior Ministry, for Sports and Integration, which is responsible for the basic and advanced training of the command and special forces of the fire departments, the command forces and other participants in civil protection as well as the dispatchers of the integrated control centers in Bavaria. It is thus a competence center for the entire range of non-police emergency response.
Due to this special situation, in which a fall out of the IT infrastructure would have significant consequences also for the safety of people, and the associated high requirements, the ministry specified a consolidation of the IT infrastructure.
Normally, this is the responsibility of the Weilheim State Building Authority (Staatliches Bauamt Weilheim) - an authority for structural engineering and road construction and responsible for around 1,000 buildings in the administration and construction measures in civil building projects as well as construction measures of the German Federal Armed Forces and US Armed Forces. Since the server infrastructure had to meet high requirements in terms of security and availability (SK III and VK III in accordance with EN 50600), the Weilheim State Building Authority brought the Data Center Group on board on the recommendation of the fire school Geretsried.
"The State Building Authority also builds server rooms, but the specification in this case was very high. We needed a specialist for these high requirements and therefore decided on the Data Center Group",
Josef Schilcher, Dipl. Ing (FH) Electrical Engineering at Weilheim State Building Authority, summarizes the situation.
The conceptual design of the project was initially initiated by the operator, fire school Geretsried. Here, the consulting of the Data Center Group under the direction of Michael Wörster set the course for the later implementation. The challenge was to bring an IT infrastructure to a certifiable level according to DIN EN 50600. The project was carried out and implemented by the specialists of the Data Center Group via the Staatliches Baumamt Weilheim. In this process, it was crucial for everyone involved to understand what it means to have to build a data center according to the requirements of DIN EN 50600.
In a building on the site, former training rooms could be used to rebuild the IT concept according to the requirements of the SFSG. 2 server rooms were integrated into the existing building and a technology container divided into fire compartments was placed next to it.
Despite difficult implementation conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply bottlenecks, the time frame of the project was just over one year (January 2021 - February 2022). Due to the G7 summit in June 2022, which took place in Munich and whose security concept also included the control centers of the police and fire departments of the fire school Geretsried, adherence to the schedule had become essential.
SFSG can now use a secure, future-proof and efficient data center and concentrate on its actual tasks.
Josef Schilcher describes working with the Data Center Group as follows:
"Normally, we attach great importance to physical proximity to our partners. But in this case, we wanted to work with a specialist. The consulting, planning and implementation by the Data Center Group went absolutely smoothly and was perfectly organized. The cooperation was pleasant, calm and constructive. The Data Center Group reacted quickly and competently to new requirements from the user, or from the Staatliches Bauamt Weilheim. It was a great fit, both professionally and personally."
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