Costs and schedule well under control

The Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG (DVAG) has been on a course of growth for many years now. As a result of this, it has 6 properties throughout Frankfurt. The new company headquarters offers enough room for all workspaces. For the planning and realization of the new data center, DVAG is relying on the expertise of the cabling specialist Rosenberger Optical Solutions & Infrastructure (Rosenberger OSI), which is based in Augsburg.

Since it was founded in 1975, the Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG) has been at home in the financial metropolis Frankfurt. The largest independent financial advising group in Germany offers comprehensive, multi-class, all-round financial advice for a large section of the population, in line with its corporate motto “Wealth Accumulation for Everyone!”. With more than 3,400 administrative and branch offices, the DVAG supports and advises around 6 million customers in relation to finances, pension provision and insurance. Since it was founded, the company has been on a course of growth. Due to the ongoing development, the company has had to lease additional external office space over the years, in addition to its headquarters.

These were spread across Frankfurt. This spatial separation proved to be inefficient and made it difficult for the staff to exchange information with one another. As a result of this, the decision was made to move away from decentralized locations and set up a new corporate headquarters, which would offer enough space for all employees of the group. In spring 2015, the DVAG therefore purchased an office complex in the Gutleutviertel in Frankfurt. However, in order to fulfill the requirements of the finance company, significant restructuring measures were needed. One huge activity within the construction project was the new data center, in which the entire IT department of the DVAG was to be housed.

Planning of the main network was tackled during the next sub-stage. This included the workspace network as well as the WLAN. The power supply and security structures were the next points on the list. These infrastructure plans were supplemented with details regarding the design and installation of the telecommunications infrastructure with telephony and fax. Sub-stage 5 dealt with the relocation of the workspaces with PCs, telephones and printers. During the last stage, the media technology with LED walls, LED panels and beamers was prepared.

The premises did present the DC team with some significant challenges, as reported by Slavko Mucic, who was responsible at Rosenberger OSI for the DVAG project. “The existing infrastructure, such as cooling units, was no longer state-of-the-art or able to fulfill the demands of a modern data center, which meant it had to be modernized from the ground up.” Furthermore, the existing cold water pipes, the subdistributors and power cables also represented a major challenge during the project, as some parts had to be completely renewed. New installations and conversions were also needed for the routes leading to the data center as well as with the distribution of the UPSs. “All of these tricky tasks had to be dealt with while staying within budget”, according to Slavko Mucic. “And the clock was ticking in the background, as the timeframe for realization was binding.”

According to Ronald Appel, the IT project was completed on time in relation to the conversion measures thanks to the good planning and constructive cooperation. The Deutsche Vermögensberatung is now working with a modern data center, which includes 565 sqm of floor, storage and circulation space. A new argon gas extinguishing facility has replaced the old sprinkler system. The A/B power supply has now been separated up to the transformers and the lines have been laid without crossovers. Air conditioning is based on n+1 and Turbocor compressors.

Cold aisle containment consists of 72 server racks and 46 Us with row coolers. Furthermore, a 3-zone security concept was realized. The DVAG also focused consistently on structured cabling. For this purpose, Rosenberger OSI laid around 30 km of copper cable and SM trunks (E2000) with 24 channels and a fiber length of 1,824 meters in the new data center.

What’s more, the DVAG data center was equipped with 29 LCC trunks with a total cable length of 743 meters. A further 33 MTP^® trunks with a cable length of 829 meters round off the cutting-edge cabling infrastructure based on a combination of single and multi-mode. By using 1U and 5U SMAPG2 racks, the DVAG has also chosen a highly flexible, modular solution that offers maximum rack density.

“All components from the portfolio of Rosenberger OSI enable simple and safe "Plug-and-Play" installation in data centers, which helped to ensure we remained on schedule during the DC reconstruction activities at the DVAG”, explained project manager Mucic. “The decisive advantage is the extremely quick installation time of the solution, because no additional specialists with special tools or measuring devices are needed to lay the cables.”