Inside the Data Center: two homes for your SAP systems

A first-rate home instead
of a basement of our own

An SAP system needs more than four walls and electricity: redundant power supplies, precision cooling, early fire detection, physical access controls and multiply redundant network connections. Building and operating all of that ourselves would be neither practical nor economical for an SAP Basis team like SK. It is the core expertise of specialized data center operators, not ours.

That is why SK uses colocation. We lease high-security, professionally operated space from established providers and install our own hardware there, backed by our SAP Basis expertise. The result combines first-class physical infrastructure with specialized SAP operations, rather than compromising either.

A long-established Baden
operator in the top 10

TelemaxX operates one of Germany’s most powerful and secure data centers in Karlsruhe. The company is independent, firmly rooted in the region and regularly ranked among the country’s ten leading data center locations. Its information security management system is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and regularly audited by TÜV Saarland.

For SK, one factor matters above all here: proximity. Short distances to the data center, an operator that remains accessible and infrastructure built for business-critical systems rather than mass-market hosting.

One of the industry’s
best-known names

Hetzner is one of Germany’s largest and best-known data center operators. The company originated in the region and operates one of its data center parks in Nuremberg. Here too, the information security management system is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and externally audited by SOCOTEC. Independent comparisons regularly place Hetzner among Germany’s ten leading data center operators.

For our customers, the second site primarily provides choice and redundancy: two independent, first-class operators at two locations, rather than every system being housed in a single place.

German soil,
protected at two sites

For business-critical SAP systems, it matters not only how well a data center is built, but also where it is located. Both sites are in Germany. This is important for customers whose data residency and regulatory requirements matter, and it reflects a deliberate decision not to use data centers outside the EU.

Because SK is present at two independent locations, systems can be placed according to their specific requirements or, where needed, protected across sites. This is one of several elements on the path to truly resilient operations.

Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) defines geographic redundancy for data centers as a minimum straight-line distance of 200 kilometers between sites. This is intended to prevent a single regional event, such as a widespread power outage or flooding, from affecting both locations at the same time. Karlsruhe and Nuremberg are in different federal states and far enough apart to meet this requirement.