T-Systems is planning to increase the capacity of its data center in Biere, Germany, by another 45,000 servers, using the money obtained from a consortium of German banks.

KfW IPEX-Bank, BayernLB and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) have agreed to jointly finance the expansion of the facility advertised as Germany’s largest data center - currently able to host up to 30,000 servers.

The deal will see a seven-digit figure invested in infrastructure in the form of a syndicated loan, KfW said. The expansion at Biere II is expected to be completed by 2018.

The Biere II building will be part financed by a loan on the basis of its green credentials
The Biere II building will be part financed by a loan it will receive on the basis of its green credentials – Christian Schroedter/MZ-Web.de

Banking on success

The three banks that form the consortium already provided funding for the first construction phase of the facility, which was completed in 2014.

KfW is a German government-owned development bank based in Frankfurt. It was formed in 1948 as part of the US Marshall Plan implemented after the Second World War.

BayernLB and LBBW are part of the Landesbanken group of German state-owned, regionally-organized banks charged with providing a public purse to the nation.

T-Systems is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, which was formed in 1996 when the state-owned Deutsche Bundespost was privatized. As of March 31, 2015, the German federal government directly retained a 14.3 percent share in the company, while it held another 17.4 percent through KfW.

Reinhard Clemens, chief executive officer of T-Systems and member of the board of management of Deutsche Telekom, said: “Our data center in Biere shows that high-tech projects like this one are possible in Germany and that, in global comparison, we are at the fore.

“The need for cloud solutions that comply with German data protection legislation has increased rapidly, and Biere has established itself so well on both the national and international market that the data center is already full.

“The financing for it from the banking consortium that […] proved its worth in the first construction phase is a key element,” he said.

Data residency

According to a press release by KfL, the data center will continue to pursue an approach of meeting the most stringent requirements with regard to data security.

The bank pointed to the fact that many of the facility’s German clients are particularly sensitive to the issue of data residency in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal, exposed by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden. They prefer their data to remain within the country rather than stored with foreign service providers.

KfW’s Energy Efficiency Programme has also contributed funds to the expansion plan, as part of a loan similar in structure to that of a leasing agreement. It will be the responsibility of Hannover Leasing, and have a tenure of 17 years.