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Secure business and communications processes
with WAGNER’s IT fire protection solutions

Fire protection in IT & EDP areas

Significance of fire protection in IT and EDP

IT - meaning information technology in the broadest sense - plays a major role in practically area of life, and its importance is only increasing. Whether it’s industry (production processes, automated logistics), e-commerce, the public sector, banking, research and development institutes, or digitised media and communications: nothing works without servers, server rooms and supercomputers any longer. All over the world, computer-controlled systems are procuring, processing and archiving information. Continuously available IT is becoming crucial to these processes. Without functioning IT, all of these operational processes would come to a halt.

This would be very costly, and would even drive some companies to ruin after a very short time. According to a study performed by the Meta Group, a ten-day outage of a key IT system can cause a company such permanent damage that it has a 50 percent chance of disappearing from the market within the next three to five years. This is why protecting IT equipment, server rooms and data centres is very important from an insurance perspective as well. IT safety and security requirements, which include fire protection, are accordingly stringent.

Fire risks and causes of fire in the IT sector

According to VdS data sheet VdS2837, IT centres run an increased risk of fire due to the great number of electrical components they contain, such as cables, line terminals and connections. The high energy density of the electrical systems installed in IT facilities compound the fire risk even more. Typical fire dangers in the IT sector involve smouldering fires caused short circuits or technical defects, many of which are only discovered once fire damage has already been done. Smouldering fires that are not detected early in data centres will find plenty of fuel in the plastics they contain, such as cable sheaths, circuit boards, server housings, and the like, and will spread quickly. Poorly sealed rooms can result in dangerous smoke and combustion gases escaping from the IT centre or being drawn into it.

If they use technical fire protection at all, many data centre operators use point-type smoke detectors in their fire alarm systems, along with conventional automatic extinguishing systems using CO2 as an inert gas or the chemical extinguishing gas Novec1230. Fire detection often occurs too late, and extinguishing work requires cutting power to the equipment in order to prevent re-ignition—which has far-reaching and unacceptable consequences, especially for maximum security, high-availability data centres.

In IT facilities, for example server rooms, potential fire hazards are caused by combustibles such as:

  • Power and data cables
  • Dust accumulation
  • Furnishings
  • Wall panelling, insulation material
  • IT equipment, power distributors, climate control cabinets
  • Old equipment, spare parts, components

Risk factors and potential ignition sources include:

  • Faulty contacts, loose connections, clamp connections
  • Technical defects in equipment can cause system parts to overheat
  • Defective equipment
  • Staff negligence
  • Work involving fire hazards
  • Defective components
  • Overloaded power supplies
  • Non IT-appropriate electrical installations

Fire protection solutions for IT/EDP

Fire protection with no extinguishing residues

To ensure reliable IT operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it is important to take coordinated safety precautions. In high-availability IT structures, standard measures include redundancies in air conditioning technology, uninterruptible power supplies, and regular maintenance without interrupting operations. An intelligent technical fire protection system can prevent fire hazards and ensure personal, environmental and property protection.

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Advantages

  • Safe
    Active fire prevention system provides ongoing, reliable fire protection.
  • Individual
    Tailor-made protection schemes for customer-specific risks and protection requirements.
  • Easy
    Extracts nitrogen directly from ambient air on site to use in reducing oxygen concentration levels.
  • Efficient
    VPSA technology offers potential energy savings of up to 80% compared to conventional membrane technology
  • Flexible
    Easy to adapt in response to changes in usage or building renovation.
  • Environmentally friendly
    No need to dispose of fire residues, ashes or extinguishing gases.
  • Certified
    VdS-inspected, including installer and system recognition.

Reference projects

DARZ GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany): Fire protection to ensure data availability

We enhanced our building’s inherent structural protection with the right high-security infrastructure. Our concept is based on avoiding hazards before they can occur. This is also associated with enormous costs. But these dangerous times are especially dangerous for data, which is why we are convinced that our customers appreciate our efforts and investments.

Sergey Mirochnik, Founder and Managing Director, DARZ GmbH

to Application Report

noris network AG, Nuremberg (Germany): Europe's most modern data centre

We were completely convinced by the combination of early fire detection, pressure-reducing (and thus safer) oxygen reduction, and subsequent inerting with OxyReduct® to bridge the time gap until the extinguishing cylinders are refilled.

Ingo Kraupa, Chairman, noris network AG

to Application Report

State Parliament of Lower Saxony, Hanover (Germany): Dependable fire protection for data at Lower Saxony’s seat of government in Hanover

The combination of cutting-edge fire prevention technologies provides the Lower Saxony State Parliament’s computing centre with an ideal fire protection solution that, from a customer perspective, meets the required protection objectives in every way.

Lower Saxony State Parliament

to Application Report

ColocationIX, Bremen (Germany)

Traditional fire protection systems have many disadvantages. Active fire prevention, on the other hand, is IT-friendly and harmless to the health of our employees.

Andres Dickehut, shareholder of ColocationIX GmbH

to Case Study

Telehouse GmbH, Frankfurt on the Main (Germany)

Therefore we have the greatest possible interest in ensuring that our customer servers are operational around the clock 24/7. And this includes, in particular, individual fire protection.

Asko Hamberger, Safety & Security Management Telehouse GmbH

to Case Study