GBG – Mannheimer Wohnungsbaugesellschaft mbH

Fail-safe site networking for municipal data streams

The relocation of the GBG Mannheimer Wohnungsbaugesellschaft mbH headquarters to a new property in Mannheim provided the opportunity to noticeably optimize the reliability of the data connections. The task for PFALZKOM was to design a fail-safe solution for internet and telephone services in the new building – in combination with the five branch offices and two connected Data Centers – and to implement it at short notice.

“As a modern housing construction company, service provider for 70 schools in our city and land developer, secure IT and telephone services play a key role for us. The staff at PFALZKOM supported us right from the planning stage and developed an impressive solution. Thanks to the fiber optic connection of the properties and the redundant connections to our two Data Centers, we now benefit from highly available IT and telecommunications”, sums up Markus Abegg, Head of IT and Services at GBG.

Fail-safe connection of five locations to two Data Centers

The challenge for the PFALZKOM technicians was to coordinate the timing. Finally, the new IT and telephone service infrastructures were to be fully operational alongside the move into the new GBG headquarters. The two GBG Data Ccenters and the company locations were connected with fiber optic cables. In addition to GBG’s own connections, an additional fiber optic line secures the Data Centers. A radio relay link was also set up as a fallback position for the internet connection. This means that the Data Center locations are connected to various central PFALZKOM backbone nodes in order to ensure the highest possible reliability of communication even in the event of a central data node (POP) failure.

The Data Centers are continuously mirrored so that all data is available even if one Data Center fails. All connected properties access both Data Centers for data and telecommunications.

High-availability IT is essential for efficient processes

“A modern company like us relies on fail-safe internet and uninterrupted data availability. With PFALZKOM, we received a punctually delivered, high-performance solution – exactly what we need for our business processes. Above all, unforeseen problems were also professionally solved on time and within budget”, comments Markus Abegg. In addition to the significantly increased reliability, the housing association also benefits from higher bandwidths. The new IT infrastructure is also scalable at any time. Increases in bandwidth are now also possible at short notice with the fiber optic connection at every location.

About GBG – Mannheimer Wohnungsgesellschaft mbH

With 18,850 apartments, GBG Mannheim is the largest municipal housing association in Baden-Württemberg. It provides housing for around 13 percent of Mannheim’s residents. The GBG Group employs around 500 people. Three subsidiaries provide specialized citizens’ services. MWS Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH develops Mannheim’s conversion areas and works as a driving force in neighborhoods as part of district development. BBS Bau- und Betriebsservice GmbH manages 70 school properties with 63 sports halls and gymnasiums, two indoor swimming pools, 16 canteens and a total of 35 janitor apartments. ServiceHaus Service-GmbH provides services for tenants.