DATA CENTER

It is the brain of a company and the place where

the most critical processes are run. Find out why
data centers are necessary and looking at SAPs
data center in St. Leon-Rot as an example what
they contain, and how they are operated.
Large-scale computer systems have been around for a while, and many
people are already familiar with the term data center. In the 1940s,
computers were so large that individual rooms had to be specially set aside
to house them. Even the steady miniaturization of the computer did not
initially change this arrangement because the functional scope increased to
such an extent that the systems still required the same amount of space.
Even today, with individual PCs being much more powerful than any
mainframe system from those days, every large-scale operation has complex
IT infrastructures with a substantial amount of hardware and they are still
housed in properly outfitted rooms. Depending on their size, these are
referred to as server rooms or data centers.
The basic characteristics are the same regardless of the size of the data
because every companys success invariably depends on smooth software
operations and those have to be safeguarded.
Computers, of course, require electricity, as well as protection from theft and
the accidental or intentional manipulation of hardware. Put simply, one has
to safeguard data centers against external influences and provide them with
sufficient cooling. After all, there is a lot of powerful hardware sitting in one
place.
In addition to these hard factors, one must also take into consideration
organizational measures, such as periodic backups that ensure operability. As
a rule, the more extensive and critical the hardware and software become,
the more time and effort are required to provide optimal protection.
For that reason, a data center preferably consists of a well-constructed,
sturdy building that houses servers, storage devices, cables, and a
connection to the Internet. In addition, the center also has a large amount of
equipment associated with supplying power and cooling, and often
automatic fire extinguishing systems.

An indicator of the security level is provided by the tier rating as defined

by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
1.

SAP's data center guarantees an availability of 99.995%.

2.

SAP's data center guarantees an availability of 99.995%.

3.

Downtime for Tier 4 customers is less than one hour per year.
4.

Critical components are designed redundantly to ensure greater security.

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During the design of the SAP datacenter the Tier 4 requirements were used
as guiding principles.
The key to success lies in the robust design of every individual component
and especially in the redundancy of all critical components. This ensures that
SAP can count on its brain at any time, and SAP customers can rely on the
contractually guaranteed availability of cloud applications running in the
data center.
Power supply
The data center is connected to two separate grid sectors operated by the
local utility company. If one sector were to fail, then the second one will
ensure that power is still supplied.
In addition, the data center has 13 diesel generators, which are housed in a
separate building. Together, they can produce a total of 29 megawatts, an
output that is sufficient to cover the data centers electricity demand in an
emergency. The diesel motors are configured for continuous operations and
are always in a preheated state so that they can be started up quickly in the

event of an incident. It only takes an outage in just one of the external grid
sectors to automatically actuate the generators.
Both the local utility company and the diesel generators deliver electricity
with a voltage of 20 kilovolts (kV), which is then transformed in the data
center to 220 or 380 volts.
Within the data center, block batteries ensure that all operating applications
can run for 15 minutes. This backup system makes it possible to provide
power from the time a utility company experiences a total blackout to the
time that the diesel generators start up.
The uninterruptible power supply (UPS) also ensures that the quality remains
constant. It compensates for voltage and frequency fluctuations and thereby
effectively protects sensitive computer electronic components and systems.
A redundantly designed power supply system is another feature of the data
center. This enables one to perform repairs on one network, for example,
without having to turn off servers, databases, or electrical equipment.
Several servers or storage units have multiple, redundant power supply
units, which transform the supply voltage from the two grid sectors to the
operating voltage. This ensures that a failure of one or two power supply
units does not cause any problems.
Cooling
All electronic components and especially the processors generate heat when
in operation. If it is not dissipated, the processors efficiency decreases, in
extreme cases, to the point that the component could fail. Therefore, cooling
a data center is essential, and because of the concentrated computing
power, the costs to do so are considerable.
For this reason, servers are installed in racks, which basically resemble
specially standardized shelves. They are laid out so that two rows of racks
face each other, thereby creating an aisle from which the front side of the
server is accessible. The aisles are covered above and closed off at the ends
by doors. Cool air set to a temperature of 24 to 26C is blown in through
holes in the floor, flows through the racks, and dissipates the heat emitted by
the servers.
Generally, a server room will contain several such enclosed server rows.
The warm air from the server room is removed by the air-conditioning
system. Yet, even the air-conditioning system has to dissipate the heat.
When the outside temperature is below 12 to 13C, outside air can be used
to effectively cool the heat absorbed by the air-conditioning systems.

At higher outside temperatures, the air-conditioning systems are cooled with

water, made possible by six turbo-cooling units. They are not all used to cool
the data center, given that some are used as reserve units. Should a cooling
system fail, the time until the backup unit is operational must be covered. To
that end, 300,000 liters of ice-cold water (4C) are available to absorb the
heat from the air-conditioning systems during this period.
To top it off, the turbo-cooling units also have to dissipate heat. There are 18
heat exchangers on the data centers roof for this purpose, which release hot
air into the environment.
At outside temperatures above 26C, the heat exchangers are sprinkled with
water in order to make heat dissipation more effective through evaporative
cooling. The large amounts of water consumed in the summer are covered
by waterworks allocated to the data center. The municipal water supply
system provides a reserve supply in this case and acts as a failsafe.