The FernUniversität in Hagen is the first and only state distance learning university in Germany. With more than 70,000 students, an annual budget of almost 100 million euros and 1800 employees, the university is the largest distance learning university under public law in Germany.
The FernUniversität is home to five faculties (Economics, Cultural and Social Sciences, Psychology, Mathematics and Computer Science and Law) and has 12 campuses throughout Germany as well as locations in Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. The study materials are available digitally and are also sent out in print all over the world, so that students can also study from abroad.
Secure and highly available IT is essential to enable university operations around the world. All administrative, teaching and research activities are controlled via the data center, which also stores examination results and teaching materials. For this reason, the university was looking for a solution for an additional backup data center to be able to buffer against possible failures. The initial question was which data center solution would meet the university's IT protection requirements. The distance learning university was Internet research and references from other teaching and and research institutions brought the Data Center Group through internet research and references from other teaching and research institutions.
"First of all, we considered what made the most sense: Do we build a new data center on a greenfield site? Do we house a data center in an existing building or do we move all data externally to the cloud and rent capacity in a data center?" says Dietmar Günther, Head of Facility Management and Construction, describing the decision-making process.
To answer this question, the FernUniversität commissioned the Data Center Group with a preliminary analysis. The FernUniversität became aware of the Data Center Group through Internet research and references from other teaching and research institutions. The preliminary analysis showed that the most sensible solution was to have its own data center, integrated as a room-in-room system in an existing building. This meant that the data center could be integrated into an existing building, saving costs, time and resources.
The opportunity to build a new backup data center resulted in additional advantages: the new data center is much more energy efficient. The additional facility can also be used to redesign the entire backup architecture on the servers. An access control system provides adequate protection against physical intrusion.
Following a public tender, the Data Center Group won the race to build the data center and acted as general contractor. The data center was built in the administration building during ongoing operations in just 9 months.
In addition, the FernUniversität received assistance in applying for funding from BAFA due to the propane cooling system used in the data center.
Dietmar Günther sums up the project: "As the client, we are completely satisfied with the project from start to finish. Deadlines and costs were all met. The Data Center Group's backup data center has even surpassed our existing data center in terms of efficiency and capacity. This gives us greater flexibility if we need to expand our capacities."
Facts & Figures:
Services:
Preliminary analysis, general planning, execution as general contractor
Technical data:
- DC IT Room Granite
- Certified in accordance with EN 50600, Tier II-III
- Emergency power supply systems and UPS
- Early fire detection, access control system and video monitoring
- Supported propane cooling
Project period:
Preliminary analysis: October to December 2019
General planning: June 2020 to June 2021
Building application: October 2020
Building permit: July 2021
General contractor execution: October 2021 to June 2022
Project management:
Peter Zöller, Markus Böhmer
Credits:
Title picture: FernUniversität in Hagen, Dirk Matull
Pictures (f.l.t.r): FernUniversität in Hagen, Horst Pierdolla | FernUniversität in Hagen, Hardy Welsch | FernUniversität in Hagen, Veit Mette
