The Swiss Federal Railway Company Schweizerische Bundesbahnen AG (SBB) has existed for more than 150 years and counts approximately 33,000 employees. Every day SBB transports 1.25 million travelers and 205,000 tons of goods, while the division SBB infrastructure with its 4,500 employees is responsible for the security and the lifecycle of the rail network and the infrastructure.
On a daily basis a mobile diagnostic vehicle controls the whole road network of SBB and reports the status of the trails with high-definition cameras, x-ray and ultrasonic devices to ensure the security of the almost 11,000 trains using the rails with a range of more than 3,000 km day after day. Every week this procedure creates an enormous data amount of approximately 20 terabytes to be collected at one central spot. Therefore, a data exchange point was installed at Bern. It must guarantee highest demands to security and availability.
The demand
Due to the large data amount the planned data center should be designed as a single-point of-failure data center. “Outsourcing was not an option due to the large data amount”, says Joël Casutt, head of technology and development. Using the internet to find a data center provider connected SBB with the Data Center Group in May 2019.
The solution
In the course of initial talks, the DC IT Safe crystallized out to be the best solution for the demands of the SBB as it guarantees the required security as well as flexibility, mobility and efficiency.
Two interlinked DC IT Safes with 62 units each provide enough space for current and future IT components. Additional features are the fire detection and extinguishing system as well as DC IT Monitoring. This tool ensures that the limit values regarding humidity, temperature etc. are not exceeded and – if yes – triggers an alarm.
The special characteristic of the UPS system pro- viding an autonomy time of 45 minutes is not only the emergency power supply of the components inside the DC IT Safe. It is also used to regulate voltage peaks that could occur from surrounding 15,000 volt railway overhead lines.
“It was important to us to find a supplier who could offer the whole package”, says Casutt. “The Data Center Group was the only company that offered a tailor-made solution with the DC IT Safe. At the same time the price was also more attractive compared to other suppliers.”
In the meantime, the diagnostic train unloads its digital freight in Bern every week, which is directly transmitted to the DC IT Safes via a specially designed fiber optic connection. It took only 6 months from the first contact to operation.
Facts
- Local partner: LESCOM AG
- Data center: DC IT Safe 62 HE DUO
- Redundant rack inverter cooling system 2 x 6.2-15 kW
- UPS system 40 kVA ∙ Fire alarm/extinguishing system
- DC monitoring DCM detection
- Annual maintenance by Data Center Services
