Deutsche Telekom lays ground for Germany's biggest datacentre

T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is to build Germany's biggest datacenter in the state Saxony-Anhalt, near the city of Biere.

The new center will extend to 150,000 square meters and will be finished in 2014. It will be Deutsche Telekom's 90th datacenter and will work together with another centre in Magdeburg to form a so called 'TwinCore' as the two data centres will work together to form a high security and high availability cluster for cloud services.

Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, a member of the T-Systems executive board, said during the ceremony: "Companies that decide to use cloud computing pay attention to high availability and data protection. With the German Federal Data Protection Act [BDSG], Germany already has a clear advantage in terms of location. The new construction in Biere will become part of our global supply and production network.”

According to T-Systems, the new building is built for energy efficiency: the new complex energy requirements will be reduced by 27 percent compared to similar data centers.

The new complex will not only be good news for customers of T-Systems cloud services, but also boost the economy of the area.

According to the company, the new building will create 100 new jobs in Biere and about 30 in Magdeburg. Deutsche Telekom is currently employing around 2200 people in Saxony-Anhalt, making it the fifth-largest employer in the federal state.

The state premier of Saxony-Anhalt, Dr. Reiner Haseloff said: "Telekom is one of Saxony-Anhalt's main employers. However, T-Systems' investments are not only creating more jobs, but are allowing Saxony-Anhalt to soon be part of the premier league of IT locations across Europe with the new data center.”