Plusserver: Cologne (CGN3) Data center

Plusserver’s Cologne (CGN3) data center is located in Cologne, Germany, serving as one of the core nodes in Plusserver’s domestic footprint. It is positioned to offer resilient, sovereign cloud and colocation services “Made in Germany,” benefiting from proximity to the Rhine-Ruhr economic region and connectivity into national and international backbone networks. The site leverages Cologne’s strong fiber infrastructure and sits within a network of Plusserver facilities that enable georedundant deployments across Germany. 

⚙️ Facility Highlights

• Footprint & layout: total area ~2,500 m² including technical space, organized into three rooms of ~550 m² each(for IT load) 
• Support for up to 18,000 servers (in the IT rooms) 
• Cooling infrastructure: redundant circulating-air cooling (2N) for data halls and technical rooms 
• Outdoor heat exchangers (n+1) with capacity ~3,000 kW 
• Raised floor (≈ 700 mm) and hot/cold aisle containment with rack-level temperature monitoring 
• Power & redundancy:
• Dedicated 10 kV supply line from substation, internal medium-voltage distribution with dual transformers 
• UPS capacity of ~2,400 kW in n+1 configuration 
• Emergency generators: two units (2.0 and 2.5 MVA) using MTU engines, with fuel storage capacity (4,000 L and 7,000 L tanks) and supply contracts covering holidays
• Battery hold-up: ~12 minutes at full load 
• Fire protection & detection: early-detection VESDA, detectors in false floor and ceilings, argon-based extinguishing from above and below
• Colocation design: built to Tier III / n+1 levels of availability for customer deployments 
• Sustainable operations: utilizes 100 % renewable electricity and implements airflow management and heat recovery strategies (e.g. reuse for office heating) 

🔐 Security & Compliance

• Access control: personalized ID and PIN authentication at entry points 
• Physical surveillance: video cameras (with motion detection) throughout indoor and outdoor areas 
• Rack-level protection: racks secured via PIN and proprietary BKS locking mechanism 
• Monitoring & operations:
• 24/7 infrastructure monitoring by Plusserver, with on-site staffing and standby coverage
• ~2,000 monitored data points across facility systems 
• Certifications & compliance:
• ISO 27001 (information security) 
• ISO 50001 (energy management) 
• PCI DSS
• Plusserver also holds status in BSI-C5 (for their cloud services) and is a founding participant in Gaia-X initiatives, supporting data sovereignty efforts. 
• Fire & safety: direct linkage to local fire brigade, smoke protection doors, and extinguishing systems in multiple zones 

🌐 Connectivity & Carrier Access

• Carrier mix & neutrality: operates as a carrier-neutral facility, with a “premium carrier mix” including Tier-1 networks such as DTAG (Deutsche Telekom) and others like TeliaSonera / Level3. 
• House fiber lead-ins: 3 separate lead-in paths, with segregated cable trays for copper and fiber (suspended overhead) 
• Interconnection & network equipment: uses equipment from Cisco, Juniper, Brocade SAN, F5, Fortinet, etc.
• Redundant upstream links: redundant premium uplinks and backup paths for Internet access 
• Cross-connects / meet-me: internal interconnection within the facility supported; third-party Internet access requires cross-connect to meet-me room 
• Cloud connectivity: optional dedicated “Hybrid Connector” (Layer 2) links enable hybrid setups across Plusserver sites, useful for short- and long-distance connectivity across Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, etc. 
• S3 region: Cologne (de-west-1) is the region for Plusserver’s S3 storage service endpoint, confirming data locality in this facility region. 

💼 Who It Serves

• Enterprises and SMEs seeking GDPR-compliant colocation and cloud services within Germany
• Customers with strict data sovereignty, compliance, or regulatory requirements (e.g. finance, healthcare, public sector)
• Hybrid / multi-cloud users who want to combine on-prem rack infrastructure with Plusserver cloud services
• Use cases needing high availability and redundancy, e.g. business continuity, disaster recovery, latency-sensitive applications
• Projects requiring carrier-neutral connectivity or interconnection with other networks in the Rhine-Ruhr / Benelux region