Where you keep your data matters. You need to be sure that it's secure and reliable, so that if the worst happens, your data is protected. And there are certain standards that data centres need to follow to do this.

In this blog, we're going to take a look at some of those tiers, what they mean and why you should consider a higher tier of data centre when choosing where to host your project or business.

Why should you care?

The data centre is one of the first building blocks in keeping your data safe, so knowing that the one you've chosen is certified by the highest standards of security is an important factor when deciding where to go.

Ensuring safety of hardware is a major concern for decision makers and executives. After all, the cost of downtime for any business is crippling, and sometimes fatal. 50% of all businesses don’t have the budget to recover from a breach of their data and having a certified DC is the first line of defense.

With a Tier IV data centre, you won’t have to worry about any form of physical harm coming to your servers. For example, our Worcester data centre is protected by secure fencing, 24/7 security, and fire safety measures like fire rated doors and early fire detection.

What is the Tier Classification Standard?

Almost everyone relies on data centres, whether you realise it or not – from email and Microsoft 365 to small businesses and corporations hosting mission-critical applications and workflows. The greater the need to be online and available, the more important it is to ensure security in data centres, prevent server failures, and maintain the availability of system resources.

Data centre tier classification systems provide information about the data centres’ fire safety, fault tolerance, maintenance, physical security and uptime. There are a number of nationally and internationally recognised standards used for ensuring these factors.

Among the most important standards is the Tier Classification Standard, issued by the Uptime Institute. This classifies data centres using a hierarchical system. The four tiers indicate where a data centre stands regarding uptime, security, and redundancy.

Why is the Uptime Institute's Tier Classification considered the gold standard?

The Uptime Institute’s Tier Certification decides on the criteria for each tier and lists several values that collectively make up the standards of data centre tiers.

Key factors include:

  • Performance – standards are performance-based, meaning any solution that meets the requirements for availability, redundancy, and fault tolerance is acceptable.
  • Technology neutral – tiers don’t need specific technologies in order to be classified, mostly because new advanced technologies consistently disrupt the digital transformation landscape.
  • Vendor neutral – the brand of technology used in a data centre isn’t considered as a factor in determining the tier, meaning centres are judged only on their capabilities.

What are the tiers?

The tiers look at external factors like connectivity and the hierarchy of data centres in international networks, as well as internal factors like security measures and data centre downtime. The system is progressive, meaning that each higher tier also includes the requirements of the tiers below it.

Here's a detailed look at the requirements for each data centre tier.

Tier I data centres:

  • No redundancy
  • Single path for power and cooling
  • No fault tolerance, not concurrently maintainable
  • Limited cooling capacity – 220-230 watts per square metre
  • Expected 99.67% uptime (maximum 28.8 hours of downtime per year)
  • Protects against disruptions from human error

Tier II data centres:

  • Partial redundancy for cooling and power
  • One path for power
  • Low fault tolerance, not concurrently maintainable
  • Simple cooling capacity – 430-540 watts per square metre
  • Expected 99.75% uptime (maximum 22 hours of downtime per year)
  • Suitable for simple IT processes that require good performance, but aren’t mission critical. Not used very often

Tier III data centres:

  • Reliable redundancy for different components – two servers, multiple paths for cooling and power
  • Good fault tolerance, concurrently maintainable
  • Good cooling capacity – 1,070-1,620 watts per square metre
  • Expected 99.98% uptime (maximum 1.6 hours of downtime per year)
  • Recommended minimum level for businesses with high standards for seamless IT processes, ecommerce, and mission-critical processes.

Tier IV data centres:

  • Complete redundancy for all parts of the system, including power and cooling
  • Very high fault tolerance, no single points of failure
  • Very good cooling capacity – over 1,620 watts per square metre
  • Expected 99.999% uptime (maximum .8 hours of downtime per year)
  • Suitable everyone, including large companies with internationally connected computing networks, 24/7 system availability, and highly mission-critical IT processes
  • Provides the greatest level of assurance for your business

Is quality testing mandatory for data centres?

Standards, tiers, and certifications aren't mandatory – data centres participate voluntarily in them. This makes it even more important for investors, consumers, and end users to look out for a transparent indication of which tier a data centre belongs to. It’s also in the interest of those running data centres to increase their credibility with standards and certifications.

Our data centres just got better!

After years of planning, in 2022 we opened our brand new data centre in Worcester. This allowed us to provide even better services for you and your business. It operates at the highest security levels, whilst also being 100% sustainable.

Powered by 100% renewable energy, our data centre really has it all. With solar panels providing power to 10% of the data centre (524kWp), electric car charging points and top-notch power usage effectiveness. Sustainability never looked so good!

We’re also ISO 27001 certified, meaning we meet the highest industry standards for information security. So we’ll keep your data safe and secure in our data centres.

Best of all, our new data centre has been built to the highest level of data centre standards – Tier IV. It also gives you 99.999% availability, the highest levels of fault tolerance, uptime and incredible physical security too – like perimeter protection, security fencing and fire rated doors, walls and ceilings.

If you like the sound of our data centres and think your data could benefit from secure, reliable hosting, why not get in touch. Our team is available 24/7 to help with whatever you need.