Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is set to hold an inauguration ceremony for its new data center later this month.

The data center building will house the university’s IT infrastructure needed for academic operations and administrative tasks, as well as systems for the National High-Performance Computing Center (NHR), reports Tixio.

JGU has been part of NHR since the end of 2022, in which the university offers access to its computing resources to other German universities at no cost, including its MOGON NHR South-West and MOGON II supercomputers. MOGON II was launched in 2017, while MOGON NHR was inaugurated in early 2023.

The facility will also house the systems required for services offered as part of the Rhineland-Palatinate Data Center Alliance (RARP).

The project has been in the works for a couple of years, with Data Center Group working as the general contractor on the project. A ground-breaking ceremony was held in May 2023, while topping out was completed in early 2024.

According to previous updates from Data Center Group, the facility spans 1,870 sqm (20,128 sq ft) with two data center areas: an enterprise area and high performance computing area, with space for 32 and 112 racks, respectively. The data center has a maximum IT load of 3.6MW.

The facility uses a closed water circuit without chillers to save resources, while an “interface” has been provided to enable the reuse of waste heat. The data center will operate with a PUE of less than or equal to 1.15. The university is also installing solar panels on the roof to contribute to the energy needs of the data center.

The data center project is part of a wider effort in which the state of Rhineland-Palatinate invested €380 million ($444m) in Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to boost its research abilities.

Estimates for the cost of the data center fall between €29m – 30.75m ($33.8m – 35.9m), provided by the state. The inauguration ceremony will be held on August 25.

JGU previously migrated the Mainz University Medical Center’s data center to another on-premise facility with the help of Kyndryl. In total, more than 500 virtual and 70 physical systems were migrated in under four weeks.