NextiraOne, Europe’s leading expert in communications services, has created and implemented a new server room environment for LAOLA1, Austria’s leading international online sports portal.

The data centre sits at the very heart of many businesses and a failure in this environment can be very costly, especially for companies such as LAOLA1, whose core business lies in its online services. The company wanted to commission an innovative, resilient and future-proof server room for its Vienna headquarters and chose NextiraOne to implement the project.

Central to the planning and implementation of the project was the need to ensure an increase in the reliability of company’s servers, coupled with the need for effective cooling, air conditioning and monitoring of the newly allocated server room. This had to be achieved within the limited space allocation of just 25 square metres, presenting NextiraOne with the challenge of making most efficient and effective use of this space.

The reliability of the servers is ensured through the creation of an optimum air conditioning environment in the data centre and NextiraOne chose a specialised air conditioning unit from Italy to achieve this. This features a sophisticated micro-processor control system which independently monitors each component of the system and ensures a constant ambient temperature and humidity in the room.

Both the air conditioning and the monitoring system operate fully automatically. This means that it is no longer necessary for staff to be present on site at all times to monitor the servers. In the event of an unexpected emergency such as fire or a cooling system failure the system immediately automatically notifies those responsible by text message, thus ensuring the necessary measures can immediately be taken immediately in order to protect the servers. This not only reduces costs but also ensures the protection of the equipment.

In order to maximize the use of the available space NextiraOne produced a customized racking, usually only found in large data centres. This allowed the number of the server cabinets to be doubled, thus creating space for future expansion within the server room. The new racks also have improved air circulation and cooling – cold air can be introduced as required through controllable cold air vents in the cabinets.

NextiraOne also chose an innovative approach to the cabling of the room. This has been installed using special overhead ducting above the racks rather than the usual approach of running the cabling under the floor with the cooling. This has the advantage that cabling can be extended or adapted to meet future needs without having to break the circuit and without the additional costs of underfloor cabling. It also allows better performance of the cooling systems under the false floor.

In addition, the implementation of a dedicated, secure server room ensures that in future only authorised personnel have access to the IT and communications centre of the company.

“We are pleased to have found in NextiraOne such a competent and reliable partner for this project,” said Rainer Geier, Managing Director of LAOLA1 Multimedia GmbH. “The effective monitoring and optimum cooling and air conditioning of the room has increased the reliability of our servers and this helps to ensure our company’s continued success. We were also impressed by the optimized use of our limited space - NextiraOne’s solutions are compelling and have supported us in achieving cost, manpower and time efficiencies. We will continue to work with NextiraOne in the future.”

Dr. Margarete Schramböck, Vice President of NextiraOne Germany and Austria said:  “A powerful data centre is an important asset for any organisation, but for companies whose core business depends on the online environment – they are essential. Thanks to the confidence our customer showed in our solutions during the project we were able to make the most of their limited facilities. We have proved once again that we have the necessary know-how and comprehensive expertise to create and implement innovative, customized data centre solutions for our customers.”

A case study of this customer is also available at: http://www.nextiraone.eu/eu/content/download/13164/173457/file/11-092%20CaseStudy_LAOLA_ENG_5.pdf