1984 Updated?
IT companies invest hundreds of thousands of US dollars in technical equipment for their offices, and the priority here is to protect data.
Software corner
Prokom Software's branch in Warsaw is on ul. Grójecka, in the "Zielony Zakatek"
["Green Corner"] office building. The building was specially designed for
Prokom, and so everything in it meets the company's requirements. A dense
network of cabling is stashed away in ceilings and floors, which along with the
load-bearing walls, can hold heavy IT equipment. Gadgetry has also been
installed, to safeguard mobile telephone signals against possible hazards, such
as the electromagnetic radiation emitted by all that electronic paraphernalia.
Two independent lines supply electricity and there are three main UPSs and an
oil- fuelled current generator.
A magnetic card and a code open doors to "Zielony Zakatek", where there are
alarm, anti-fire, ventilation, air-conditioning and technical monitoring
systems. The Helio system controls lighting and can adjust it to current needs
with its light intensity sensors so electricity consumption is minimised. The
BMS ( the integrated building management system) supervises, controls and
archives all this equipment's most significant data.
Confidential and digital
"The Asset Locator security system, can locate every person in the building with
precision. Burglar detection, carbon dioxide monitoring in the indoor car-park
and 62 industrial television cameras, (which automatically record digital
pictures of the place where movement is detected), have also been installed",
says Marek Cieciura, Director of the Warsaw branch of Prokom Software. The
laptop in his office is secured to his desk by something resembling a bicycle
lock.
Confidential information is sealed in special rooms by the 'Faraday Cage', which
prevents computers' electromagnetic radiation escaping.
At this year's "Inteligentny Budynek" ["Intelligent Building'] conference
in Wroclaw, "Zielony Zakatek" won the prize for ,the Most Intelligent
Building", and PROKOM became "the Best Integrator" of ,Integrated
Building Management Systems" (IBMS).
On the roof and in the basement
The Kopernik Office Building in Aleje Jerozolimskie, which was developed by
Liebrecht & Wood, was not adjusted to suit any requirements peculiar to its
tenant, ComputerLand, according to Urszula Luszpinska of L&W.
"Only standard lighting and structural cabling were installed but ComputerLand
may have added other equipment", she says.
No reinforcement of floors was required, as servers are located in the basement
and a laser device for data transmission was installed on the roof.
Strong floors
When Energobudowa, general contractor of the BTC-Metro office building, (at the
intersection of Al. Niepodleglosci and ul. Woronicza), learned that one of the
tenants was to be the firm Internet Partners, some of the construction documents
had to be changed. On the floors leased by IP, capacity was increased from 500
to 750 kg per square metre.
"Tenants are provided with more than the double electricity supply through
electrical cables and IP also has oil-fuelled current generators", says
Zygmunt Wójcik, chief engineer of Energobudowa. "The building has security
guards, access control and CCTV".