Dank Brandvermeidung gehört Stromlosschalten der

Issue II/2010
Systematic fire prevention concepts for data centers:
Dank
Brandvermeidung
Do your
IT systems still gehört
Stromlosschalten
der Vergangenwork without power?
heit an
The continual operation of numerous electrical systems in computer
and server rooms represents an extremely high fire load. Even small
smouldering fires can cause damage or equipment failures. When using
conventional gas extinguishing equipment in the event of a fire, it can
be necessary to immediately shut down the entire system. In order to
prevent re-inflammations, the extinguishing gas concentration must be
maintained for a prolonged period – ten minutes according to Vds Schadenverhütung. However, this poses issues for the low annual downtime
period demanded by data center operators, which is in the minutes
region. WAGNER began responding to these issues many years ago by
developing new solutions and innovative technologies to minimise the
customers’ risks.
To ensure that all business
processes run smoothly, almost all data center operators
rely on the continuous availability of IT systems. Their
company’s survival is dependant upon this.
IT operators therefore define
their system availability requirements in accordance with
availability environment classification (AEC) 4 of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) as up to 99.9999
%. This corresponds to annual downtime of no more
than 32 seconds per year. As
a fire can lead to the failure
of entire data centers, it is of
utmost importance to correctly assess this risk.
Diverse risks in
data centers
Data centers and network
hubs pose a latent risk due to
their high fire loads and are at
the centre of fire prevention
concepts. Power supply charging units, control cabinets
and computer systems all
come together in one place.
The resultant high energy
density can cause damage
and smouldering fires due to
heat accumulation.
Further difficulties arise as the
permanent operation of multiple servers and IT systems gives
rise to a high risk of technical
faults. The list of typical cau-
ses of fire is correspondingly
long. Back in 2007, the Allianz
Zentrum für Technik (Allianz
Center for Technology – AZT)
ascertained that defective
condensers and power supply
units (shorted coils) were the
main causes of fires in the IT
field.
Minor defects can
cause major damage
Smouldering fires caused by
technical defects or poor cable
connections can lead to the
development of gases and
acids, which can contaminate
the surrounding technology.
This can damage systems and
devices or even cause the technology in the room to fail.
A smouldering
fire
that is not
quickly detected will
find enough
combustibles
to spread undisturbed.
Non-airtight rooms – an
underestimated risk
The airtightness of rooms is a
key issue with regard to fire
protection in data centers: in
addition to allowing dangerous smoke and combustion
gases to escape from or infiltrate into the data centre,
the observation of the holding
time required to successfully extinguish a fire using a
gas extinguishing system is
placed at risk if the airtightness of the room cannot be
guaranteed.
Problems also arise through
subsequent
modifications
to the rooms. For example,
subsequently laying network
cables can affect the room
envelope. Undetected leakages can be created. Changing
the air conditioning and thus
the pressure conditions in
the shelter can substantially
increase the effects of leaka-
ges. In the worst case
scenario, the gas extinguishing process
could have zero effect in the event of a
fire as the hold times
cannot be observed.
De-energising – often
the only option in the
event of a fire
According to the current VdS
Schadenverhütung regulations,
the concentration of extinguishing gas must be maintained in the room for ten
minutes after the flooding
process. The necessary volume of extinguishing gas is calculated before a data center is
commissioned. Test flooding is
conducted in the static condition only.
If it is not possible to guarantee that the airtightness of the
room envelope and the air
conditioning will remain stable
over the years, the de-energising of the computing systems
and other technology is definitely recommended to prevent
re-inflammations and eliminate risks to the success of the
extinguishing process.
Ú(continued on page 2)
WAGNER®, OxyReduct®, TITANUS®, VisuLAN®, FirExting® are registered trademarks of the WAGNER Group GmbH, Langenhagen, Germany
Page 2
Issue II/2010
Fire Prevention
Ú(continued from page 1)
Do your IT systems still work without power?
Active fire prevention for
ultimate safety and security
To avoid the sometimes fatal consequences of a minor
technical defect, WAGNER
has developed new and efficient fire prevention solutions.
The flagship among these is
the fire prevention system
OxyReduct®, which actively
prevents fires. Tailored to the
materials to be protected,
nitrogen is introduced into
the rooms to reduce the oxygen concentration and per-
Editorial
Werner Wagner,
Dipl.-Ing.,
Managing
Director WAGNER
Group GmbH
Dear business associates and
readers,
In the 34 years that WAGNER
Group GmbH has been serving
its customers, we have taken
many important steps forward.
In the field of fire prevention,
we have immediately reacted
to new technical challenges so
that we could always offer our
customers the best solutions. In
the IT field, for example, technical systems are becoming ever
more powerful and are used
24-hours a day. A data center
fire is a scenario that no safety manager wants to imagine,
especially in view of the need
for constant availability. Thanks
to OxyReduct®, our active fire
prevention system, this fear is a
thing of the past. De-energising
the server – as can be necessary
when using conventional extinguishing systems in the event
of a fire – is no longer necessary
with our active fire prevention
system.
Visit one of our upcoming
events. We will be happy to
show you even more new solutions and innovations in fire
prevention, as well as in fire detection and suppression and risk
management. We look forward
to seeing you.
Werner Wagner
manently maintain it at the
necessary level. This prevents
fires from spreading or even
developing into full-blown fires. It also eliminates the need
for de-energisation.
Make de-energisation
a thing of the past
The highest protection goal
of continual IT system and
device availability must be
achieved in data centers to
ensure that business is never
interrupted. Fires and the associated risk of a shut down
must therefore be prevented as far as possible. This
can be achieved through the
principle of active fire prevention with OxyReduct®, a
systematic fire prevention
solution system that is now
used by hundreds of companies around the world.
Furthermore, the rooms can
still be entered despite the
lower oxygen levels. In the
event of a modification of use
of the areas to be protected,
the system can also be easily
adapted and thus offers excellent flexibility. Changes to the
airtightness of the room are
detected and reported using
a patented procedure from
WAGNER.
Defects can therefore be remedied and the room remains
protected. The design of the
OxyReduct® fire prevention system, which has been
approved by VdS, complies
with guidelines VdS 3527 and
is recognised by insurance
companies.
Interview
“OxyReduct® substantially increases
the IT infrastructure availability.”
Dr. Jabs, the Alegri International Group is a leading
IT consulting company. Its
activities include advising
companies on data center
safety and security. Are
data center operators aware of the potential risks and
effects of a fire?
IT security and data security are indisputably the most
common phrases heard in a
data center. In the context of
physical, technical and logical
security as a basis for availability, fire prevention is a key
topic. In our experience, data
center operators place a great
deal of value on complete fire
prevention concepts. People
are well prepared in all areas,
from the detection of the first
signs of fire (very early smoke
detection) and fire extinguishing technology through to
the instruction of the fire brigade on the features of data
centers. The same applies to
the architecture of fire compartments. However, it is also
clear that many data center
operators know little about
the fire prevention measures
taken by neighbouring or directly bordering companies.
In many cases, there still is a
need for action in this area.
Of course, and this should be
emphasised here, fire prevention policies should include consistently ensuring that
there are no additional fire
loads in the data centers. A
common scenario is that such
a system is thwarted by documents being left next to racks
or even on the server modules
or packaging being left lying
around, even if only for short
periods.
Is the topic of de-energisation in the event of a fire
one that operators are aware of?
Data center operators are aware that at least part of the data
center has to be de-energised
in the event of a fire. De-energisation is regarded as a risk
that is minimised through ex-
pensive redundancies, for example. However, this problem
cannot even be resolved by
extinguishing fires with chemical extinguishing gases or
inert gases. Although the fire
brigade do not directly fight
the fire, the flooded rooms can
only be re-accessed on the fire
brigade’s approval.
rastructure availability is much
higher – even in my possible
damage scenario. And high
and the highest availability
form the basis of a successfully operated data center.
Dr. Jabs, thank you very
much for your time.
On the whole, the IT infrastructure and the services provided
by this remain in an undefined
status for a prolonged period –
a fact that is a major problem
in an age in which 24-hour IT
system availability forms the
basis of corporate activities.
In this context, how
would you rate fire prevention systems such as OxyReduct®?
The OxyReduct® fire prevention system prevents fires. This
makes it possible to eliminate
de energisation and the need
to wait for the fire brigade’s
approval following the use of
extinguishing gas. The IT inf-
Dr. Andreas Jabs
Managing Consultant
Alegri International
Rhein-Main GmbH
Issue II/2010
Page 3
Fire detection
Sparkasse Saarbrücken opts for
WAGNER very early smoke detection
Saarbrücken/Germany – Sparkasse Saarbrücken
has selected fire protetion solutions from
WAGNER to protect its internal data center. The
highly-sensitive TITANUS RACK·SENS® air sampling smoke detection systems have been installed
to detect possible sources of danger at as early
a stage as possible and thus protect the state-ofthe-art IT cabinets.
IT infrastructure availability is
a key topic in the field of information technology. Even short
disruptions can generate substantial costs and damage the
image of the IT infrastructure’s
operating company to an extent that should not be underestimated.
Fire prevention for
IT infrastructures
In Saarbrücken, the aforementioned risks were detected at an early stage and an
appropriate response was
made. The topic of fire prevention was taken extremely
seriously from the offset and
the resultant, possibly highly
severe consequences, such
as a substantial impairment
of availability, were correctly assessed by the safety
managers. By selecting the
Early introduction
of countermeasures
The major advantage of
TITANUS RACK·SENS® is
that it enables very early fire
detection. By continually taking air samples and checking
for the tiniest smoke particles
in the air, fires are detected
at the earliest stage possible. This is the only way to
introduce early countermeasures such as an alarm and
extinguishing measures that
prevent the worst scenarios.
Sparkasse Saarbrücken there-
active fire prevention system
OxyReduct®, the decision
was taken to use innovative
fire prevention solutions from
WAGNER. In a further computer room, which is equipped
with encapsulated serverracks, TITANUS RACK·SENS®
devices are used. These are
air sampling smoke detection systems that have been
specially
developed
for
control and server cabinets
and are directly and space-savingly installed in the closed
server cabinets which they
monitor.
This solution was selected
as the closed server cabinets meant that conventional detectors only detected
smoke in the room at a much
later stage. A fire in the closed
cabinets can therefore be
precisely located.
Fire Prevention
WAGNER presents the second
generation of OxyReduct® Compact
Langenhagen/Germany – The
active fire prevention system
OxyReduct® Compact is an
innovative piece of fire prevention technology that reduces oxygen to lower levels or
even eliminates the combustion ability of the materials
to be protected. The system
is characterised by its compact design. A compressor,
membrane and control unit
are all integrated into the
same housing and thus take
up little room and require
little wiring and pipework
when installing the system.
Thanks to the development
of the second generation of
the active fire prevention system OxyReduct® Compact,
which was revealed to the
public for the first time at
Security 2010 in Essen,
WAGNER has now significantly improved the quality of
this approved technology.
now oil-free compressors. Successful improvements have
also been made to the
fire
prevention
system’s
efficiency.
Twice the performance
The performance of the new
series has been doubled,
which clearly increases the
size of the protected areas.
A single nitrogen generator from the new Compact
series can therefore protect IT rooms with a volume
of up to 2000 m3 and archives or warehouses with a
volume of up to 3000 m3. By
using multiple machines, the
protection volume can be
correspondingly increased.
Specific system components
also made it possible to
double the service life of the
Energy savings of
up to 30 %
A new procedure has made it
possible to achieve an energy saving of up to 30 %. The
design of the OxyReduct®
Compact in the protected
area further reduces the
system’s footprint and makes
it even easier to install. The
control unit can also be positioned outside the protected
area. The ease of maintenance of the new design and
a maintenance indicator also
ensure optimal availability of
the new technology.
fore selected an extended
version of the TITANUS
RACK·SENS® with integrated extinguishing functions, which can directly
suppress the fire with the
extinguishing gas NovecTM
1230 in the event of an
alarm.
Page 4
Fire detection
TITANUS® air sampling smoke
detection systems protect Australian
UNESCO World Heritage site
Melbourne/Australia – The Carlton Gardens in the Australian city of Melbourne are home
to the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Royal Exhibition Building, which was originally
constructed for the Melbourne International Exhibition 1880-1881 and is now one of the
most famous exhibition buildings in Australia. Very early smoke detection systems from
WAGNER have now been installed to protect the unique building complex.
It is especially when dealing
with the protection of invaluable treasures and unique buildings that fire prevention becomes a particularly important
topic. A virtually undetected
fire ignited by the tiniest fire
source is capable of destroying
or ruining all of these things forever within the shortest time.
High requirements for
fire prevention
In order not to let it get that far,
the team in Melbourne opted
for a fire prevention solution
from WAGNER. In designing
and planning the fire prevention technologies, processes
which were carried out in cooperation with the WAGNER
partner company in Australia, the renowned Australian
specialist for fire prevention
systems, National Fire Solutions (NFS), particular attention
had to be paid to the system
being practically invisible once
installed. A very early smoke
detection system was therefore selected. By installing
several TITANUS TOP·SENS®
SL air sampling smoke detection systems, all the initial
requirements were met – as
well as many more. Small,
almost invisible air sampling
points in the ceilings continually take samples of the rooms’
air. The SL technology also offers particularly quiet ventilator systems, which cannot be
heard in the exhibition rooms.
Fires can now be detected
at such an early stage that
countermeasures can be immediately and duly introduced.
This is made possible through
the false-alarm-immune tests
of the air samples for the tiniest
smoke particles long before an
incident can actually be called
a fire. This system also all but
eliminates smoke damage.
Used throughout the world
The Melbourne team is
confident that it has selected the right fire prevention
solution in the TITANUS® air
sampling smoke detection systems.
The global use, the high
level of acceptance by many
customers and the highly
innovative technology of the
very early smoke detection
system swayed the building
operators in their selection of
WAGNER.
Events with WAGNER involvement
Braunschweiger Brandschutztage, Lower Saxony, 21-22/09/2010, www.tu-braunschweig.de/zfw/vanst/bbt09
FS Days, Prague, Czech Republic, 21-23/09/2010, www.fsdays.cz
Innotrans, Berlin, 21-24/09/2010, www.innotrans.de
SECURITY, Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, 05-08/10/2010, www.securitymesse.de
China Fire, Peking, China, 13-15/10/2010, www.fireexpo.cn
it-sa, Nuremberg, Bavaria, 19-21/10/2010, www.itsa.de
Securité Romandie, Lausanne, Switzerland, 03-05/11/2010, www.securiteexpo.ch
TEAM Logistikforum, Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, 23/11/2010, www.teamlogistikforum.de
Vds-Tagung „Fire extinguishing installations“, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, 08-09/12/2010, www.vds.de
Internationale Fachmesse
für Verkehrstechnik
21.–24.09.20
Bavarian Security Award 2010
Presentation of the Bavarian Security Award 2010
Munich/Germany – The innovative fire prevention concept
jointly developed by WAGNER
Bayern GmbH and WAGNER
SCHWEIZ AG for the Munich
underground rail network (UBahn) has won the Bavarian
Security Award 2010 in the fire
prevention category. The award
was presented by Interior
Minister Joachim Herrmann.
Due to the particularly high
risks associated with underground transport systems,
the Munich underground rail
network has particular requirements in terms of fire prevention. In the event of a fire,
large quantities of toxic smoke
gases can be released within
the shortest periods. The
Munich public utility companies are therefore playing it
safe and equipping all carriages with the latest fire prevention technology: TITANUS®
air sampling smoke detection
systems are being used as an
early fire detection solution
which can detect the smallest amount of smoke without
false alarms. The air sampling
points are almost invisible and
therefore protected against
vandalism – an advantage
that is of particular benefit in
rail transport. To successfully suppress fires, WAGNER
uses its innovative two-phase
water fog technology, which
can generate the finest water
droplets on the nozzle under
a low hydraulic pressure of
max. 10 bar. If the detection
system is triggered, the fire is
suppressed with a fine and
incipient outbreaks of fire. The
fire detection system Rail 138
with Loop technology acts as
the central hub of the overall
system.
With its innovative technologies, WAGNER Bayern GmbH
is setting new standards in the
field of fire prevention for rail
vehicles. The entire range has
been authorised for use in rail
vehicles.
Imprint
WAGNER-Impulse is the customer newsletter of the WAGNER Group GmbH. Printed on
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Photos: ©iStockphoto.com/TommL, ©iStockphoto.com/grybaz, ©iStockphoto.com/enotpoloskun, TU-Bahn, REB, MVG, Kerstin Groh
Part No.: 68-30-3341
highly effective water fog and
the development and spread
of smoke gases is prevented or vastly reduced. For the
technical installations in the
underground area, automatic gas extinguishing systems
are used that quickly and
reliably extinguish fires or
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Issued by: WAGNER Group GmbH
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