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APL builds a new free-cooling data center for Groupama

Customer name :Groupama
Area of business :Insurance
Accompanying mode :Consulting - Project management
Type of service :Assistance with the design and construction of a high energy efficiency data center

Groupama Systèmes d'Information (GSI), which manages all IT production for the insurance group Groupama, decided to create a data center that would serve as a backup for its old center in Bourges, France, while also hosting a portion of its development IT.
GSI chose APL, which was making upgrades to the old site, to build this new, 3250-m² data center—dubbed "M2"—in the Rennes region.

Project objective

  • Build a data center with very high levels of availability
  • Anticipate growth in IT demands
  • Ensure the energy efficiency of the site
  • Adhere to the Flood Risk Prevention Plan and earthquake regulations

Services provided

  • Design assistance: dimensioning, comparison of different options for containment and load balancing
  • Thermal simulations, to compare different layout scenarios and anticipate fluctuations
  • Organization of 4 computer rooms, each with 200 m² of compute space
  • Economical and environmental analysis: estimation of energy consumption and PUE, advantages of free-cooling compared to other cooling solutions

Client benefits

  • Data center designed and constructed within the prescribed timeframe (18 months)
  • An HPE (High Energy Performance) site: high quality energy production, lighting, and free cooling of equipment supported by hydro-cooling units in the room
  • Scalable data center architecture and installations, in order to absorb load spikes (with power draws varying between 1.5 kW HQ/m² and 3kW HQ/m²)
  • Redundancy of all technical installations (electrical and climate control networks), in order to ensure continuity of service during construction, maintenance, load spikes, etc.
  • Economical site performance, with very low operating costs

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