Data Center Tier Levels are based on site infrastructure and resulting availability. The first and most basic is a Tier 1 Data Center, which follows basic guidelines for the installation of computer systems and is most often called a server room. The most rigid level is a Tier 4 data center, which is designed to host mission critical computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems and compartmentalized security zones controlled by strict security access controls methods.
The four data center tier levels are defined by the Uptime Institute, which serves as a Data Center think tank and professional services organization. The levels describe the availability of data from the site infrastructure. The higher the tier, the greater the accessibility and redundancy, and as a result the greater the cost to obtain and maintain that particular tier level.
Uptime Institute Data Center Tier Levels
- Tier I: Basic Site Infrastructure
- Tier II: Redundant Site Infrastructure Capacity Components
- Tier III: Concurrently Maintainable
- Tier IV: Fault Tolerant Site Infrastructure
The purpose of this standard is to equip design professionals, data center operators and non-technical managers with an objective and effective means for identifying the anticipated performance of different data center site infrastructure design topologies.
This standard establishes four distinctive definitions of data center site infrastructure Tier classifications (Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV), and the performance confirmation tests for determining compliance to the definitions. The data center Tier classifications describe the site-level infrastructure topology required to sustain data center operations, not the characteristics of individual systems or subsystems. This standard is predicated on the fact that data centers are dependent upon the successful and integrated operation of several separate site infrastructure subsystems, the number of which is dependent upon the individual technologies (e.g., power generation, refrigeration, uninterruptible power sources, etc.) selected to sustain the operation. Every subsystem and system integrated into the data center site infrastructure must be consistently deployed with the same site uptime objective to satisfy the distinctive data center Tier requirements.
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