User Manual

Siemens Switzerland Ltd 10
Building Technologies Division
Intervention measures To limit the danger to human life and the extent of the damage, it is extremely
important to start intervention and extinguishing measures as soon as possible
after the outbreak of fire. All extinguishing equipment must always be kept in
perfect working order: this is a prerequisite for any successful intervention.
Intervention measures activated by the fire control panel include:
• Automatic closing of fire doors, dampers etc.
• Activation of smoke handling systems
• Automatic alarm transmission to the fire department
Important extinguishing systems include:
• Portable fire extinguishing equipment
• Hose reel equipment
• Self-actuated sprinkler systems
• Dedicated automated extinguishing systems
Chapter 4 describes the available extinguishing equipment in more detail.
1.3. Fire protection for critical areas
in data centers
Server rooms and data centers can be divided into different categories according to size and safety requirements.
Safety requirements have become increasingly important in an international environment and they can be used
for smaller server rooms as well as for larger data centers.
Different data center types are normally classified as follows:
• Server rooms (< 50 m
2
)
The largest group within the category of data centers. Depending on the company size, this category
includes rooms with one server rack to rooms with up to two dozen server racks.
• Medium size data centers (approx. 50 – 300 m
2
)
Contains rooms with a larger number of server racks, which are operated and supported by a
professional operator.
• Large data centers (>300 m
2
)
Usually operated by institutional operators such as universities and research facilities as well as larger
professional suppliers.
• Backup data centers (recovery center)
Serve as a guarantee for availability and data security in the event of a main data center breakdown due
to natural disasters, technical faults or attacks.
• Communication rooms
Digital communication runs on specific servers installed in appropriately secured rooms. Communication
rooms guarantee transfer of electronic data.