How T-Systems Solved Its Data
Center Challenges to Offer
Dynamic Services to the U.S.
The Company
T-Systems, part of Deutsche Telekom Group (DT), delivers Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions
for major corporations and public-sector organizations worldwide. With a focus on serving multinational corporations that require transformative ICT solutions, T-Systems knows data centers. The company has nearly 100 managed data centers, 56,800 open system servers, and more than three million managed SAP users.
The Challenge
Establish Fully Virtualized Architecture and Industry-Leading SLAs for the U.S. Market
T-Systems offers Dynamic Services – IT as a service (ITaaS) offerings ranging from storage as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) as well as popular ERP, CRM,
and BI applications. T-Systems keeps its Dynamic Services cost-effective and flexible for its customers by relying on a fully virtualized architecture, says Dr. Greg Smith, Head of Portfolio Solution Design at T-Systems.
1649 W Frankford Rd, Carrollton, TX 75007 + 1 (866) 297-8766 + www.CyrusOne.com 3
“Full virtualization, of course, requires redundancy to ensure data recovery and business
continuity,” Smith says. When initially designing its Dynamic Services architecture, T-Systems had to determine the best way to provide SLAs that met or exceeded what customers were achieving from their internal IT infrastructure.
T-Systems architecture included data center clustering, but legacy clustering solutions had recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO) success rates of just 70-80 percent.
So for Dynamic Services, T-Systems chose the NetApp MetroCluster software “for synchronous mirroring in combination with what we refer to as ‘twin-core’ data centers, in which we have two data centers that are over 60 miles apart,” Smith explains. “Each server has independent network interfaces for the storage network, the administration network, and the customer network. There is no routing among these interfaces nor among the networks.”
The Solution
Dynamic Services Delivered Via Twin Core MetroCluster
T-Systems needed a twin-core setup in the United States to deliver Dynamic Services to customers in the U.S. market. To do that, they needed a strategic partner with:
• Top Tier Data Center /TIA certification • Site availability of 99.999 or greater • Military grade security
• High-density architecture capability After vetting all available options and colocation companies, T-Systems selected CyrusOne to provide a top tier data center facility in Houston that would meet all of the T-Systems requirements for Dynamic
The facility has 110,000 square feet of data center raised floor space; 8,000 KVA of total power capacity available; multiple and diverse network access points; and 24 x 7 onsite security. The facility houses the mirrored storage network, with access to the servers at the twin data center via storage IP address.
Why T-Systems Selected CyrusOne
“There are a number of reasons why T-Systems chose CyrusOne as a partner for serving customers in the U.S.,” says Smith. Among them:
• The Houston facility was newly built, to the latest industry standards, and its location met the distance requirement relative to data center two
• Ability to do maintenance on any system without impacting production • Dense architecture support
• Excellent customer service
• Cost-effectiveness (which is critical at T-Systems’ high rate of growth)
• High-density capability for cloud architectures and work loads
• Flexibility for T-Systems’ highly dynamic customer environments
• Fully redundant power architecture, which ensures uptime of all hardware components and supports 100
percent availability of power to mission critical information systems and equipment
• Multiple generators, fuel tanks, and batteries also ensure seamless power continuity and 100 percent uptime for all components within the facility
• Military grade security, including 24 x 7 x 365 onsite security guards as well as biometric and card key security for access control
1649 W Frankford Rd, Carrollton, TX 75007 + 1 (866) 297-8766 + www.CyrusOne.com 5
Perhaps the biggest benefit of all: by partnering with CyrusOne, T-Systems was able to grow into the U.S. market, providing cost-effective, flexible Dynamic Services to customers in yet another global venue. It’s a powerful testimonial, given T-Systems’ expertise with data centers across the world.
“T-Systems is looking to drive growth in key markets like the U.S., and CyrusOne is a truly strategic partner to help in this pursuit,” says Smith.
About CyrusOne
With 24 colocation facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia, CyrusOne helps many of the world’s largest global businesses – including 9 of the Fortune 20 and over 100 of the Fortune 1000 companies – and companies of all sizes take advantage of the latest data center technology and realize top operational efficiencies through:
• Flexible design – Scalable, customized data center solutions that are engineered with Massively Modular data center technology to align with your business needs • Personalized service – High touch customer service delivered by data center
experts
• Full transparency –Full transparency in communication, management, and service delivery
• High reliability – Excellent availability using state of the art technology backed by 100% service level agreements (SLA)
• Texas IX - Connecting all major facilities in Texas, CyrusOne Internet Exchange (IX) enables customers interconnect between data centers and customer locations and to seamlessly engage the full ecosystem of business partners, content providers, networks, carriers, and Internet service providers
About the Author
Scott Brueggeman oversees the management of CyrusOne’s global marketing, product development, inside sales, and corporate communications including branding, demand creation, and public relations. His 20 years of marketing and sales experience includes Fortune 50 firms, as well as smaller high-growth companies. Prior to CyrusOne, he spent several years with running marketing at CoreLink, a data center hosting and
