What is a Tier IV Data Center and Why Should I Care?
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technology partners in order to offer you the peace of
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With Data Foundry® we have found such a partner.
Data Center infrastructure performance standards began
back in the 1960s with the development of the Tier I
classification, the 70s added Tier II, and Tier III was
added in the late 80s/early 90s. This tiered approach
was developed as a way to compare one type of
infrastructure topology to another and also to classify
uninterruptible power levels/uptime - beginning with
99.67% and continuing up through 99.99% or "Four Nines".
Each addition of a Tier generally indicated that the
uninterruptible uptime increased. Initially Tier I was
the gold standard for Data Centers and indicated the
highest level whereas Tier III indicated the lowest
level .
In 1995, the need for a fourth classification
occurred due to the evolution of data center uptime
objectives. Since the
Uptime Institute
had participated in the development of the Tier III
standards, they developed the Four-tiered classification
that addressed the increased availability experienced in
the industry. The addition of the fourth tier required
revisiting the organization of these classifications and
at that time Tier I became the lowest of the standards
and Tier IV, the highest.
Simply put, in order to receive Tier IV status, a data
center must have at least two completely independent
electrical systems. These dual systems supply power
through diverse multiple & simultaneous paths serving
the sites' computer equipment.
The classifications and standards, while complicated,
are described at a high level below:
Tier I - indicates a fundamental site infrastructure
with no redundancy .
Tier II - indicates that the data center has redundant
capacity components and single non-redundant
distribution paths serving the sites' computer
equipment.
Tier III - indicates concurrently maintainable redundant
capacity components and multiple distribution paths
serving the sites' computer equipment.
Tier IV - indicates a completely fault tolerant data
center with redundant capacity systems and multiple
distribution paths simultaneously serving the sites'
computer equipment.
The Uptime Institute is one organization that performs
certification service and verifies both the design
topology of the data center and how it complies with the
set standards AND then verifies the site sustainability.
The sustainability phase is important because it not
only addresses equipment and environment but also
inspects management procedures and processes as well as
staffing levels, coverage, training & skills of
employees working within the data center. Since 70% or
more of all site failures involve people, this is a very
important piece of the certification process and
measurement.
If you are interested in more details,
and reviewing the White Paper developed by The
Uptime Institute regarding the Tier Classification
definitions
you will find it here.
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