Reference Story Sonio – secure, sustainable, and ISO-certified

Since July 1, 2023, Sonio AG has been operating its Datacenter Services at the Stollen Luzern data center. Various services such as Infrastructure as a Service, Veeam Cloud Connect, and Swiss3Cloud Storage are operated there for our approximately 300 customers.

Team

Data Center Stollen Lucerne

ewl energie wasser luzern operates a high-security data center in the city of Lucerne with the Stollen Luzern data center. The data center, located in the heart of Central Switzerland and thus also in the heart of Switzerland, is situated in an underground bunker complex shielded from the outside world and offers 1,640 square meters of IT usable space with around 600 racks.

The Stollen Luzern data center combines the latest technology with sustainability and optimal connectivity to Swiss communication and energy networks. Thanks to the connection to ewl's in-house heating network, the waste heat from the servers can be used sustainably.

The underground facility, highest physical protection, security, quality, and energy efficiency – are the cornerstones of this unique data center. However, the ecological aspects were decisive for the decision in favor of the new data center. Sonio has had ISO 14001 certification since 2022, which aims to reduce the ecological "footprint" and significantly promote sustainability. In addition, optimal accessibility and flexibility in the expansion of customer areas are of course a great advantage.

In addition to the basic security measures, the unique underground location of the data center also offers the highest IT security. With the latest technology for security and the environment, the data center positions itself as a long-term investment in the Swiss data center landscape.

Hardly any country in the world has such a high density of data centers as Switzerland. Therefore, it was only logical and sensible to choose a data center with all security – but also ecological – considerations. With our decision, Sonio is now a partner of one of the most ecological data centers in Switzerland.

Markus Fischer

CIO of Sonio AG

Switzerland has earned a reputation as a data center country for various reasons in recent years. The energy consumption for servers, cooling, and infrastructure is gigantic. And perhaps the most important waste or by-product – waste heat – is not even properly used by many data centers. This is completely different with our new partner and thus makes an enormous contribution to reducing the ecological footprint. Since a CO₂-neutral data center is operated in the Luzern Stollen, according to ewl, only certified Swiss electricity from renewable energy sources is used.

The cooling of the data center is done with water from Lake Lucerne, which is pumped in from the central station at a temperature of 13.5 degrees Celsius. The water, which has a temperature of 19 to 25 degrees after its journey through the data center, leaves the Stollen again, and with this waste heat, surrounding buildings are heated. This makes the Stollen Luzern data center and thus also the Sonio data center one of the most ecological data centers in Switzerland.