C A S E S T U D Y
2 site particularly stands out for its sustainable cooling concept. Due to its proximity to the Alps, a large-volume flow of naturally cool groundwater runs beneath the colocation data centre. Following successful evaluations, NTT GDC implemented an intelligent and sustainable groundwater cooling system. In addition, the data centre is powered exclusively by green electricity. Both factors were key arguments for Helmholtz Munich in choosing this location.
Initially, 15 servers were installed as a learning experience within the leased colocation space. Subsequently, 300 HPC servers already in operation at the previous site, along with approximately 400 servers and storage devices, were relocated by a specialised service provider in three phases. The transfer of the storage systems was handled by the system manufacturer. Helmholtz Munich is connected to the data centre via two redundant dedicated lines, ensuring high bandwidth and reliability.
At present, both CPU and GPU servers are cooled using a conventional air-towater cooling approach. In the future, the racks for the HPC cluster will be directly liquid-cooled. NTT GDC already operates one of the world’ s largest liquid-cooling data centres in Utah, US. For years, NTT GDC has designed its data centres to allow liquid cooling to be retrofitted at any time. The cooling backbone is separated from customer colocation areas and its architecture is designed to allow the direct installation of liquidcooling systems.
Outcomes: Dynamic partnership drives innovation for reliable high-performance computing in bioscience across roughly 500 projects running in parallel. By moving the data centre into NTT GDC’ s colocation space, Helmholtz Munich has reached a new level of efficiency and flexibility.
Computing power can be added easily, resulting in shorter lead times. This higher agility is especially valuable in timesensitive projects.
New cooling options can be explored with the guidance of NTT GDC’ s experts. Addressing today’ s needs and future requirements is key to remaining at the forefront of life sciences research.
Additional services – such as preparing dedicated client reports or handling smaller adaptations at the racks in the data centre – simplify the team’ s day-today work.
The collaborative partnership with experts at NTT GDC is already paying off. While many research centres hesitate to build and operate their own HPC clusters, Helmholtz Munich demonstrates that doing so within a colocation data centre is both feasible and worthwhile.
Dr Alf Wachsmann, Head of Scientific IT, Helmholtz Munich, offers further insight.
How has the move to NTT ' s Munich site made things more sustainable compared to how you operated previously?
As a government-funded research centre we ' re required to consider sustainability – this includes understanding where the electricity comes from. Our main campus runs entirely on green electricity, so it was important to find a data centre that could guarantee the same, and NTT could.
On cooling, NTT uses free coolers on the roof, supplemented with groundwater. It was very important to us that a lot of electricity wasn’ t being used to produce cold water to cool the facility. Those two things meant our energy monitoring and auditing could sign off on it. Even though the site isn ' t on our campus, we still have to report those
Until a few years ago, all IT-related tasks at Helmholtz Munich were handled by the research teams themselves. A few years ago, the IT organisation started transitioning to a centralised model to streamline operations and optimise the use of IT resources. Today, the IT team enables researchers at Helmholtz Munich to focus entirely on their areas of expertise, while they manage the complex computational infrastructure. Typically, 600-700 users rely on the research centre’ s computing power
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