The Deltalis RadixCloud data centre is located at an extreme location deep within the Swiss Alps.
But the Deltalis RadixCloud data centre has been shortlisted for the DatacenterDynamics EMEA 2012 award as the ‘Most Extreme Data Center Deployment’.
Solution provider Minkels of the Netherlands and operator Deltalis confirmed that the data centre is near the Swiss Gotthard massif. This location offers clients of Deltalis an extreme secure Tier IV colocation facility. It’s also an energy-efficient data centre facility, using the mountain’s natural cooling resources (glacier water, for example).
Formerly housing the Command and Control centre for the Swiss Air Force, the rock chambers of the Deltalis RadixCloud data centre provide a huge space. The Deltalis data center consists of several multi storey buildings built into the granite rock. The company claims this attribute provides customers with military-grade secured colocation space. Deltalis has vaulted ceilings in separated rooms and pillars around which colocation facilities had to be created. At this extreme location, Minkels, part of the global organization of Legrand Group, implemented the modular data centre products.
Minkels was specifically selected by Deltalis for its modular approach, delivering modular data centre solutions such as Minkels Varicon M data centre racks and Minkels Cold Corridor aisle containment solutions meant for an energy-efficient separation of cold and warm airflows.
Michael Imfeld, VP Marketing & Sales at Deltalis, said the modularity and energy-efficiency of Minkels’ solutions fully matched our detailed and location specific requirements. Modularity in the data centre solutions being offered, together with Minkels’ approach to fully customize its solutions on top of that, helped us to create a maximum of efficiency in our data centre infrastructure. The infrastructure now connects seamlessly with the capricious cave-like environment.
Jeroen Hol, CEO of Minkels, said by offering modularity and full customization as standard features we do not only meet challenges associated with deployment in ‘difficult’ locations such as the Swiss Mountains project, it also facilitates current developments regarding the evolving data centre dynamics and increasing need for flexibility and scalability when it comes to cloud computing and virtualization.
Imfeld added that apart from the energy-efficient characteristics of Minkels’ solutions, we are using energy-efficient natural mountain resources, such as cold glacier water for the cooling. Of course, a project such as this requires quite some improvisation force from a supplier, but Minkels has modularity and customization integrated in its vendor supply principles. This helped us in our innovative efforts, it maximized our adaptability to the irregular environmental conditions inside the mountain.
