Chances are, if you are in the data center business, you know about the uptime tier standard. Knowing how to showcase what your data center offers will help your customers choose the option that works best for them.
Chances are, if you are in the data center business, you know about the uptime tier standard. But do you know what the data center
tierssystem really means, and what level you are on now? Knowing how to showcase what your data center offers will help your customers choose the option that works best for them.
The thing to remember is this: while all data centers are not created equal, neither is a Tier 4 center essential for everyone. There are over 3,000,000 data
centers in the United States alone. There used to be a unique designation for Cloud Data Centers (CDC) but that has been disappearing in recent years. Even if you haven’t officially been rated, you can determine your level from the information you’ll find herein.
What is the Uptime Tier Standard System?
Classification of data centers into tiers stared with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and a simple four tier rating based on reliability. However as technology improved, the TIA system was not enough.
So the Uptime Institute stepped in with what was at first a four tier system that has developed into a five tier system, although Tier 5 data centers are rare as of this writing. You’ll see why shortly.
So which data center level are you?
Data Center Structure
Data centers have certain key components that contribute to their rating. Things like power, redundancy, temperature controls, humidity controls, and pressure controls all relate to reliability.
