CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY – DESY
DESY Centralizes Cable Infrastructure Management with FNT Command
DESY uses FNT Command to centrally plan, document, and manage the complex cable infrastructure supporting its particle accelerators and research facilities. By creating a transparent and reliable data foundation, DESY can better coordinate infrastructure changes, prepare maintenance work, and respond more efficiently to faults.
The Success Story shows how FNT Command supports the European XFEL and other critical research infrastructure, providing detailed visibility across cables, signal paths, cabinets, and responsibilities while enabling more efficient planning and maintenance processes.
About DESY
DESY is one of the world’s leading accelerator research centers. Its scientists use large-scale research facilities to investigate the structure and behavior of matter, from elementary particles and novel materials to biological molecules.
DESY develops, builds, and operates advanced particle accelerators and detection systems that provide unique tools for international research. Each year, more than 3,000 guest researchers from over 40 nations use DESY’s research facilities, highlighting its importance as an international center for scientific collaboration.
Its highly complex research facilities place exceptional demands on technical infrastructure, making reliable documentation, planning, and management of critical assets such as cable infrastructure essential.
DESY’s Journey to Transparent Cable Infrastructure Management
The Challenge of Managing Critical Research Infrastructure
DESY operates highly sensitive research facilities where even a single cable failure can disrupt operations. Previously, infrastructure information was partly maintained in Excel, with different versions and no complete overview. Following a cable damage incident, identifying affected systems, services, and responsible teams required significant manual effort.
At the same time, maintenance windows for facilities such as the European XFEL are limited, making accurate planning and reliable infrastructure data essential.
The Solution for Transparent Cable Infrastructure Management
DESY selected FNT Command to establish a central system for cable documentation and infrastructure planning. The platform documents cables, signal paths, cabinets, technical equipment, and responsibilities, providing employees with an almost complete overview of the infrastructure.
The planning functionality also allows teams to prepare changes in advance, automatically generate work orders, and transfer completed work into the current documentation with only a few steps. This helps keep infrastructure data accurate while simplifying ongoing maintenance.
What FNT Enables at DESY
- Centralized cable documentation – one consistent view of complex cable infrastructure
- More efficient maintenance planning – detailed preparation before restricted maintenance windows
- Faster fault analysis – easier identification of affected infrastructure and responsibilities
- Structured change processes – planning and work orders directly connected to documentation
- Greater infrastructure transparency – from cabinets and technical equipment down to individual cables
The Impact of Greater Infrastructure Transparency
FNT Command gives DESY the reliable data foundation needed to operate and expand its research infrastructure more efficiently. Teams can prepare maintenance activities in detail, coordinate work across departments, and reduce the effort required for infrastructure planning and fault resolution.
The platform was first used extensively for the European XFEL, where the accelerator’s cabling and signal paths have been centrally planned and documented in FNT Command since construction began.
Customer Perspective
“A professional system, such as FNT Command, gives us an almost complete overview of our entire cable infrastructure. This information is essential in order to achieve the high quality standard required. We also save an enormous amount of time during expansion planning and fault resolution.”
Kay Wittenburg, Head of the Cable Documentation System Project Group, DESY
Want the Full DESY Success Story?
Discover in more detail how DESY uses FNT Command to manage critical cable infrastructure, improve maintenance planning, and support highly complex research environments.
About FNT
FNT is a leading provider of software solutions for the integrated management of telecommunications, IT and data center infrastructure. FNT’s solutions are cloud ready and can be used worldwide as an OSS/IT management application for communications service providers, enterprises and government organizations. Over 500 companies and public authorities rely on FNT to plan, document and manage their passive and active physical, logical and virtual IT, telecommunications and data center infrastructures, from the physical level to business services. FNT’s unified resource management capabilities store this information in a vendor-agnostic uniform data model that builds a central system of record of a hybrid infrastructure. Whatever mixture of traditional on-premise IT and private, managed and public clouds an organization uses, the single source of information about all network assets that FNT provides is the key to gaining a clear understanding of overall utilization, capacities and asset status for more efficient planning, service assurance and fulfillment processes.
FNT is headquartered in Germany and has offices in several locations in Germany as well as in New York, London, Singapore, and Timisoara. FNT offers its software in numerous countries through partnerships with marketleading IT service providers and system integrators.