Planning
Sustainable Data Center Planning
We know it, you know it: A well-planned project saves a lot of time and money. We have successfully planned several hundred large and small data centers in recent years, and the trend is rising.
Conversely, this means that we have plenty of experience to respond to your requirements, to ensure conscientious cost and schedule control, and to ensure that the project runs smoothly.
With our team of experts, you can rest assured that supplying reliable IT services and high cost-effectiveness play just as important a role in our data center planning as climate protection, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, optimizing energy and water consumption, and providing the most holistic, ecologically sustainable production of IT and infrastructure.
Holistic planning and resilient data center design
In addition to vital aspects of a data center such as electrical engineering, air- conditioning, refrigeration, safety, fire protection and measurement, and control and regulation, we also consider your individual business processes, environmental strategy, and growth goals. In this way, we can also take the future requirements of your IT needs into account.
After analyzing your needs, we create a tailored, individual profile from which all necessary measures, possible savings, and the potential and the optimal components of your future Data Center architecture can manifest.
Only then can the actual planning begin. In doing so, we take into account geological features, your company's development, protection goals, availability requirements, construction type and design as well as defined project milestones.
High Knowledge has Overseen:
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Data Center (Quantity)
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Floorspace (qm2)
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IT-Racks (Quantity)
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Connected Load (Megawatt)
Professional Qualification and Expertise
We are accredited data center designers (Uptime Institute) as well as officially approved auditors of TÜV Rheinland and the German Federal Environmental Agency for the "Blue Angel" for sustainable data centers. We are also certified business consultants of the Federal Office of Economics, experts of the Open Compute Project (OCP), and of the European Cloud Project "GAIA-X" of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany).
We provide a board member in the digital association Bitkom e.V. for the area of data centers and a member of the steering committee for the area of IT infrastructure. Furthermore, we work as a member of the standardization committees for data centers (co-author EN 50600) and artificial intelligence at the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) as well as the German Commission for Electrical Engineering and Electronics at DIN and VDE.
Furthermore, we are certified SCRUM Masters (CSM), PRINCE2 project managers and qualified in the leading Lean Six Sigma method for quality and process improvement. As an approved member of the professional organization for consulting engineers (VBI), we are committed to independent and transparent advice, planning, monitoring, coordination, assessment and testing.
We are a recognized training company and attach great importance to the transfer of knowledge, teamwork, the promotion of skills and the development of the personality of our trainees.
The Planning is Often Divided Into Different Work Phases:
Phase 0
(LP 0)
Consulting
(cost and risk analyses, feasibility studies etc.)
(cost and risk analyses, feasibility studies etc.)
Phase 3
(LP 3)
Design planning
Phase 6
(LP 6)
Preparation of the tender
Phase 1
(LP 1)
Basic evaluation
Phase 4
(LP 4)
Approval planning
Phase 7
(LP 7)
Participation in the awarding of contracts
Phase 9
(LP 9)
Property management and documentation
Phase 2
(LP 2)
Preliminary planning
Phase 5
(LP 5)
Implementation planning
Phase 8
(LP 8)
Object monitoring
LP 0
Consulting
(cost and risk analyses, feasibility studies etc.)
(cost and risk analyses, feasibility studies etc.)
LP 1
Basic evaluation
LP 2
Preliminary planning
LP 3
Design planning
LP 4
Approval planning
LP 5
Implementation planning
LP 6
Preparation of the tender
LP 7
Participation in the awarding of contracts
LP 8
Object monitoring
LP 9
Property management and documentation
Our planning services include the following components:
- Overall planning (general planning)
- HOAI work phases 1-9
- Performance and load tests
- Plan review
- Awarding support
- Safety and health coordination on construction sites
- Energy measurements
- Project and construction monitoring
- Quality assurance
- Cooling and energy supply
- Safety engineering and fire protection
- Data cabinets, cabling, and network technology
- Site acceptance and function tests
- Measurement, control and regulation technology
Planning for Every Aspect of Your Data Center
Strategy
Every project begins with the formulation of clear goals and requirements for a Data Center project. An essential component here is the actual Data Center strategy. Questions such as georedundancy, location, availability requirements or required IT space are developed and recorded in the form of a strategy. The strategy serves as a "guideline" for all further planning and implementation steps.
Risk Analysis
As part of a risk analysis, the specific risks of a Data Center is determined and evaluated. Physical risks, such as the risk of flooding or earthquakes, play just as much a role as the risk of cyber-attacks and vandalism. The risk analysis lays the foundation and the framework parameters for the availability analysis.
Availability
The availability can be described in different ways. There is a large number of classifications of Data Centers on the market, which are intended to provide information about the availability of a Data Center. The EN 50600 or Uptime Institute’s Tier-Classification specify a framework within the required availability of Data Centers can be estimated. The further planning and configuration steps are based on this availability assessment.
Cooling
Every Data Center produces "waste heat" to the same extent as it absorbs electrical energy. If the IT server and its components have a power consumption of 100kW, 100kW of thermal energy must be cooled and dissipated. There is a multitude of cooling technologies on the market with the most varied of approaches. The aim in planning and designing the cooling concept is to keep the energy required for cooling as low as possible in order to ensure economic and ecological operation of the Data Center. We have developed patented solutions for CO2-neutral Data Centers. Contact us for further information.
Energy Supply
The energy supply is an essential part of a Data Center planning. In addition to questions about availability in the event of maintenance or failure safety, aspects of network feedback, the electromagnetic compatibility concept or the use of renewable energies are considered and transferred to the planning. The design of emergency power generators, uninterrupted power supply systems, bypass circuits or transformers play a central role in the planning of the energy supply.
Security
The basis of the security concept is the risk analysis. On this basis, an individual security concept is drawn up for the Data Center. The contents of this concept are, for example, a protection zone model for burglar alarm and access control systems, video surveillance, the use of extinguishing systems or fire alarm systems. The concept is coordinated in close cooperation with the operating staff of the Data Center and their users such as IT administrators. Security concepts must take into account the security aspects without affecting the operational processes too massively. Mastering this balancing act is a hallmark of a good security concept.
Key Performance Indicators
KPIs are key figures that provide information about different activities around the Data Center, such as availability and resilience. One of the best-known KPIs is the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) factor. This gives an assessment of the effectiveness of the Data Center. For the calculation, the energy supplied to the data center is divided by the energy used by the IT equipment. Modern data centers have a PUE of 1.3 or better. Today, however, the PUE is often no longer sufficient. There are a large number of additional KPIs that provide even more detailed information about the general condition of a Data Center. Some examples are:
- Sustainability (REF/ERE)
- Inherent and operational availability (Ai / A0)
- Resilience Level (RL)
- Redundancy in a system
- Reliability (R(t))
- Single and Double Point of Failure (SPoF / DPoF)
- Mean Down Time (MDT)
- Mean operating Time Between Failures (MTBF)
- Mean Time Between Maintenance (MTBM)
- Mean Time to Restoration (MTR)
- Water consumption (WUE)
- CO2 emissions (CUE)
- Annual performance factor (JAZ)
- Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE/pPUE)
- Key Performance Indicators for Data Center Efficiency (KPI4DCE)
- Data Center Maturity Model (DCMM) and many more
