TÜV NORD GROUP

With over 10,000 employees in 70 countries TÜV NORD GROUP is one of the world’s leading technology support services with its roots going back to 1869. Few other companies have stood for the security and protection of people as much as them. The concern can be broken down into the business divisions industry, service, mobility, education, raw materials, aerospace, and IT. For TÜV NORD GROUP the IT field represents an important part of the concern. A total of 185 employees work in this area – and counting. The accumulated knowledge of our well-trained team is also needed because all the processes of around 100 global subsidiaries are supported from the concern’s center in Hanover.

TÜV NORD GROUP used to operate in various IT landscapes in the three main locations in Germany as well as in foreign countries. As part of the restructuring of internal processes, the IT was rearranged. At this point the technology service provider decided to centralize its IT. Today TÜV NORD GROUP runs a highly available data center in Hanover. “We pay particular attention to a high degree of virtualization,” says Leroy Racette, IT division leader and adds: “This amounts to over 75% and is consequently leading in Germany.” By restructuring and with the new building, the company has managed to reduce its IT costs by 30% since 2010. And that’s despite an increase in services. 

The aim was to construct a data center which wins people over with its future viability and protects sensitive client data to the best of ist ability. The calculations show that by pooling all of the processes into one single location the ROI will be reached in less than 5 years. When looking for a competent planning partner for this important project, Leroy Racette decided on Data Center Construction (a division of the Data Center Group): “We knew the company because we had worked together many times as part of the TÜViT Trusted Site Certification. So, we already knew about the quality of the services.”
 

In the past, TÜV NORD GROUP had different IT landscapes, ranging from server rooms at the three main locations in Germany to small data centers at foreign companies. In the course of a restructuring of the internal processes, a reorganization and optimization of the IT finally took place. At this point, the technology service provider decided to centralize its IT. Today, TÜV NORD GROUP operates a highly secure and highly available 'state-of-the-art' data center at the Hanover site. "We paid particular attention to a high level of virtualization,"
says Leroy Racette, adding, "This is over 75%, making it the leader in Germany." With the restructuring measures and the new building, the company also managed to reduce IT costs by 30% since 2010 while increasing services. 

Planning for the mammoth project began back in 2011. The goal was to build a data center that would be future-proof in terms of energy efficiency and security and provide the best possible protection for sensitive customer data. In the course of calculations, it turned out that the ROI would be achieved in less than 5 years by bundling and harmonizing all processes at a single location. The central consolidation of IT was thus a done deal. In search of a competent planning partner for this important project, Leroy Racette chose the specialists at Data Center Construction. "The company was known to us, as we had already worked together many times in the course of the TÜViT Trusted Site certification. We therefore knew about the quality of the services." Since the company has a high level of expertise in the planning and implementation of highly available data centers, they found the right partner here. After initial preliminary planning, the realization of the new building increasingly took shape. "As part of the detailed planning, Data Center Construction also took into account factors such as the cabling, equipment options and other trades," says Racette. Once the implementation was finally sealed by the management, Data Center Construction and its team of in-house architects, electrical and air-conditioning planners, and fire protection experts took over the detailed planning in close cooperation with TÜV NORD GROUP and provided a precise timetable for the implementation. This was ultimately carried out by a local general contractor. The good preparation meant that TÜV NORD GROUP stayed under the estimated budget and the project was completed within the agreed timeframe.
 

All specifications regarding the implementation were discussed with Data Center Construction and precisely calculated during the 2½-year planning phase. Finally, the groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2012. Today, TÜV NORD GROUP has two mirrored, highly available IT rooms, each measuring 350 square meters, of the DC IT ROOM Granite EBS-S series of the Data Center Group, whose technical trades are designed with multiple redundancy. The IT security rooms are the first of their kind to be successfully tested as a complete system and ECB-S certified. The extremely fire-resistant design made of lightweight materials, high-temperature-resistant seals and robust insulating panels withstood intensive flaming during the fire test at MPA-Braunschweig without leaving any technical damage to the object. And the highly available solutions also withstand other physical hazards, such as burglary, vandalism, water or debris loads. Thus, the DC IT Room Granite EBS-S absolutely met the requirements of TÜV NORD GROUP. "Our ambition was always to integrate two ECB-S certified IT rooms," says Leroy Racette, underlining the high security requirements that the new data center location had to meet. "We installed the most secure of all components during the setup - the two rooms are the best proof!", says Racette. The issue of energy efficiency also played a very weighty role in the implementation, which is reflected by the use of particularly environmentally friendly infrastructure technology. Among other things, the data center operates with free cooling. Three state-of-the-art recoolers are installed on the roof of the building, which use the outside air to cool the servers down to a temperature of 18 °C. The cooling system is also used to cool the servers.

At higher temperatures, variable-speed fans are switched on first. From approx. 27 °C, adiabatic cooling also kicks in. Only when this is no longer sufficient do the compressors of the chillers finally come into play, ensuring a sufficient chilled water temperature for the circulating air cooling units in the server rooms. Enclosures inside the IT security room also make their contribution to efficient air conditioning with the help of intelligent air flow. This system ensures CO2 savings of up to 320 t per year. Together with the integrated virtualization technology, this results in total CO2 savings of 650 t per year. This results in energy cost savings in the seven-digit range.
 

Another plus point is the power supply from two different networks of the energy provider. In addition, there are two diesel generators that maintain the entire data center supply for a period of 72 hours. According to Leroy Racette, this should be absolutely sufficient, as the diesel supplier has contractually guaranteed that refueling will take place within just 48 hours. The network connection and thus the line paths are also secured several times over, as two different providers are used. The very high security standards also benefit from the fact that the entire building is divided into five security areas, that the entire building is divided into five security areas. This ensures that only authorized persons  can enter the individual zones. This access is guaranteed both by PIN queries (mental lock) and authentication by means of an access card. "Even the server racks can only be opened with special authorization," says Leroy Racette. With regard to a suitable fire protection concept, the team around Racette opted for an extinguishing system that is operated with the particularly environmentally friendly extinguishing gas Novec 1230.

Among other things, this is characterized by space-saving stockpiling. "With the installation of a single extinguishing room, both the two server rooms and both UPS rooms are protected," explains Racette. In the event of a fire, the system is triggered using a sensitive early fire detection system and an additional fire detector (2-line 
dependency). In an emergency, the extinguishing system is triggered and floods the endangered area. The resulting overpressure is led to the outside via pressure equalization flaps. After the extinguishing area has been released, a regulated exchange of air enables normal operation to be restored quickly.
 

"Not only have we taken just about every possible security precaution, but we now also have a data center that excellently reflects our corporate values," says the IT division manager. All in all, the service provider is proving that excellent IT locations are also available in Germany. There are even plans to build another high-security data center in the future, which could be used as a hosting solution, for example.

Leroy Racette is very satisfied with the course of the project and especially with the cooperation with Data Center Group. "The meticulous planning has been the be-all and end-all for the smooth and successful implementation". However, this was also necessary in order to realize the high-security data center. After all, if TÜV NORD GROUP's IT were to temporarily fail, the company would be virtually unable to act. "Nowadays, all processes are digitalized," Racette knows, adding, "All business processes have an extremely high level of IT penetration." From theoretical driver's license tests to general inspections, the storage of customer data, and all operational processes within the company - in the event of a shutdown, TÜV NORD GROUP employees worldwide would be extremely limited. The new data center and its high level of protection thus offer a real market advantage.
 
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