Tier Certification

Tiers is the Global Language of Data Center Performance Tier Certification is the Accountability

• Banking & Financial Services• Data Center Services• Defense• Education• Electrical Utility• Government • Healthcare • Insurance• Manufacturing• Pharmaceutical• Petrochemical• Relief and Aid• Technology • Telecommunications

Participating Industries

Angola • Argentina • Australia • Brazil • Canada • Chile • China • Colombia • Costa Rica • Curacao • Cyprus • Czech Republic Ecuador • Honduras • Hong Kong Hungary • India • Indonesia • Italy • Jamaica • Kazakhstan • Korea • Latvia • Lebanon • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Malaysia • Malta • Mauritius • Mexico • New Zealand Nicaragua • Nigeria • Pakistan • Panama • Paraguay • Peru • Portugal • Qatar Romania • Russian Federation • Saudi Arabia • Singapore • South Africa • Spain Switzerland • Taiwan • Thailand • Trinidad • Turkey • Ukraine • United Arab Emirates • United Kingdom • United States • Venezuela • Vietnam • Ireland • Netherlands

Tier Certification is Worldwide Credibility

See Tier Certifications by country in our interactive map: http://uptimeinstitute.com/TierCertification/certMaps.php

Certifications SummaryUptime Institute is the only organization worldwide that Certifies data center designs, facilities, and operations to the Tier Classification System (I-IV) and Operational Sustainability criteria. Tier Certification is an unbiased, third-party validation of the Tier level that benefits both enterprise and third-party data centers. Tier Certifications have been awarded worldwide to corporations across all industries, governments, and universities.

Tier Certification recognizes organizational accomplishment—the data center capital investment will yield sustained uptime to support the business. Weakness in the data center infrastructure translates to lost capital investment. Tier Certification assures all stakeholders that the data center investment has been protected against such loss.

Tier Certification also recognizes industry achievement—a competitive differentiator from self-certifications that are often misleading. Tier Certifications elevate a data

Tier Certification of Design Documents

ProcessUptime Institute team of consultants reviews 100% drawings in our offices.

• Tier issues are documented without incurring travel time and expense

• Tier deficiencies are delivered via PDF report

• A second review is included to close resolved issues

• The successful completion of the review culminates with Uptime Institute awarding a letter and foil of Tier Certification of Design Documents

Timeline • Coordination of design drawing delivery

• E-mail or courier of full design document package to Uptime Institute offices

• Review of documents

• Report writing

• Delivery of report to Client in locked PDF

• Teleconference to ensure understanding of report findings

• Revision of drawings by design team to address identified issues

• Review of revised drawings to validate that all outstanding Tier issues have been resolved

• Letter and foil of Design Certification awarded

center to a preeminent and highly visible position in the industry. Tier Certification satisfies the need for an unbiased, due diligence assessment, thereby raising client confidence and reducing the duration and cost of the contracting process.

Uptime Institute Tier Certification is unique in the industry in its rigor and comprehensiveness, differing from a number of other compliance assessments that rely on a sampling or representative analysis. Tier Certification provides an analysis of each and every system down to the level of valve positions and panel feeds.

Certification provides assurances that there are not shortfalls or weak links anywhere in the data center infrastructure. There is no effective way to ensure consistency in engineering concepts at the detailed level and allow for shortcuts or substitutes. The Tier Certification process was developed with the consequences of failure in mind—in terms of infrastructure investment and market perception.

Tier Certification seamlessly incorporates into the project schedule. The process ensures that deficiencies in the design are identified, solved, and tested before operations commence.

Operational Sustainability Certification is the final phase, to identify the behaviors and risks beyond design and construction that impact the ability of a data center to perform over the long term. Operational Sustainability Certification recognizes operational excellence and mitigation of operator errors—the leading cause of data center outages.

Certifications Process & TimelineTier Certification specifically applies to—and recognizes—functionality and capacity that is demonstrated on the design documents for Tier Certification of Design Documents, and infrastructure that is installed/implemented during the site visit for Tier Certification of Constructed Facility.

Why Tiers?• The Tier Classification System is the only benchmark-

ing system developed by and for data center owners.

• Tiers is not one size fits all, but allows for many ways

to meet the criteria. You and your team determine the

best solution for your project.

• Tiers has been proven worldwide—no conflicts with

local code or regulation in over 40 countries.

CompanyData Center

Expires 30 January 2017

®

All Tier Certification of Design Documents awards issued after 1

January 2014 will expire two years after the award date. This will not

impact Tier Certification of Design Documents issued prior to this

policy change or currently contracted and under way.

Tier Certification of Constructed Facility

ProcessUptime Institute team of consultants gathers data on site over multiple days in order to validate the facility’s Tier objective.

• Consultants confirm that the facility was constructed as designed and Tier objectives will be met

• Site functionality demonstrations are observed

• The successful completion of the on-site review culminates with Uptime Institute awarding a letter, foil, and plaque of Tier Certification of Constructed Facility

Timeline• Preparation of functionality demonstration list

• Coordination of site visit

• Team deployed to data center site location

• On-site assessment of installed infrastructure equipment and observations of site functionality

• Team returns to offices

• Data analysis and report writing in offices

• Reports delivered to Client in locked PDF

• Teleconference to ensure understanding of report findings

• Letter, foil, and plaque of Facility Certification awarded

CompanyData Center

30 January 2015

®

Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability Certification

ProcessUptime Institute team of consultants reviews data off site and on site over multiple days in order to evaluate the effectiveness of each component of Management & Operations and Building Characteristics.

• Consultants review Tier Certification deliverables

• Site Location risk assessed

• On-site assessment to validate specific behaviors and risks

• Deficiencies and recommendations are delivered via PDF report

• The successful completion of the review culminates with Uptime Institute awarding a letter, foil, and plaque of Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability

Timeline• Coordination of site visit

• Review of Tier Certification, Site Location risks, and preparation of agenda and needs list

• Team deployed to data center site location

• On-site tour, staff meetings, and assessment of behaviors and risks; survey the local area to identify Site Location risks; debrief management

• Team returns to offices

• Data analysis and report writing in offices

• Reports delivered to Client in locked PDF

• Letter, foil, and plaque of Operational Sustainability Certification awarded

CompanyData Center

Expires 30 January 2018

®

All Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability awards issued

after 1 January 2014 will expire as follows: three years for Gold from

the award date, two years for Silver, and one year for Bronze. This

will not impact Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability issued

prior to this policy change or currently contracted and under way.

“The Tier Certifications are a source of pride, motivation, and inspiration for Mobily. We look forward to more years of productive collaboration with Uptime Institute.”

— Essam O. Jubair, Mobily Vice President Buildings & Facilities

(Saudi Arabia)

© 2014 Uptime Institute, LLC. All rights reserved 00007 A

Uptime Institute is a division of The 451 Group, a leading technology industry analyst and data company. Uptime Institute has office locations in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, U.K., Spain, U.A.E., Russia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Visit www.uptimeinstitute.com for more information.

Supplements to Tier Certification

Progress ReviewsProgress reviews at significant design milestones (Concept Design & Detailed Design) are supplemental to Tier Certification. Progress Reviews function as an interim ‘check-in’ to ensure that non-compliant solutions are identified early in the process, before they affect schedule, budget, and project success.

Tier Gap AnalysisSummary-level Tier review of design documents to identify capital-level gaps within the Tier objective. This is not a Certification, but a report of the major, capital-level deficiencies to the Tier objective. This allows the owner a ‘preview’ to understand the large Tier issues and most effectively evaluate the appropriate investment in both the site infrastructure and the Tier Certification process. A Tier Gap Analysis includes a single review of the design documents in our offices.

Education for Owners & OperatorsThe Accredited Tier Specialist™ (ATS) course is a curriculum and professional designation for the benefit of the individuals directly responsible for data center uptime and the experts that support them. ATS provides intensive instruction on both of the Tier Standards (Topology and Operational Sustainability) in order to ensure accurate and successful management-level application.

Education for EngineersThe Accredited Tier Designer™ (ATD) course is a technically focused curriculum for the further education of the individuals responsible for data center design.

Questions?Please contact your regional representative: http://uptimeinstitute.com/contact-us or email us at: info@uptimeinstitute.com.

“We made the decision to choose Tier Certification as the global standard to design and build our data center. Our research showed strong evidence of Tier Certification benefiting hundreds of advanced data center development worldwide. Comparing total investment, it is very important to have the whole data center project, design and build, scope under a global leading standard from the very be-ginning. We truly believe Tier Certification is the right choice for us.”

— Dr. Yu Feng, GouTai JunAn Securities General Manager,

Information Technology Centre Development (China)