Last week the Uptime Institute released a new international operational sustainability standard for data center owners, operators and managers titled, Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability. According to the Uptime Institute Website, this Standard addresses the facility’s management behaviors and risks that affect long-term data center uptime by aligning the infrastructure’s capabilities, as defined by the Tier Classification System (I-IV), with its ongoing management.
The Uptime Institute created the standard Tier Classification System as a means to effectively evaluate data center infrastructure in terms of a business’ requirements for system availability. The Tier Classification System provides the data center industry with a consistent method to compare typically unique, customized facilities based on expected site infrastructure performance or uptime.
- Tier I: Non-Redundant - Dedicated Data Center Infrastructure Beyond the Office Setting
- Tier II: Basic Redundant - Power and Cooling Systems have redundant capacity components
- Tier III: Concurrently Maintainable - No Shutdown for equipment and maintenance
- Tier IV: Fault Tolerant - Withstand a single, unplanned event such as fire, explosion, leak
“The Institute’s Tier Classification System ensures a data center facility is designed and built to deliver uptime in accordance with its business requirements; Operational Sustainability ensures the site is managed to sustain that level of availability over the long-term,” said Julian Kudritzki, vice president, Uptime Institute, LLC. “Another benefit of the Operational Sustainability Standard is that the risks and behaviors are prioritized to help owners and operators maximize staffing and budget resources.”
To find out more about the new standard read Uptime Institute's complete press release. Kim Ream, Sr. eCommerce Specialist