Tier certification for DC: the pros and cons

When we talk about the reliability of IT systems, we should not limit ourselves exclusively to network security issues. There can not be trifles here - everything matters from the quality of equipment maintenance to the direct cooling and power supply of the data center.

To unify the evaluation process, the Tier system was proposed. This evaluation system has 4 levels: from I to IV. It allows you to assess the level of training of IT infrastructure, security at the physical level and even assess the structure itself, where the data center is located. The certificate is confirmed by the international organizations Uptime Institute or TIA.

What is the problem

The point is how the certification process works. Today, everything is so that you can not even go through official procedures, but simply declare general compliance with Tier's requirements. This will be enough for the people, but the actual compliance of the IT infrastructure with the declared level will remain in doubt before the first problems appear.

Another cunning move is obtaining a certificate for documentation to the data center. Who will check the compliance of the final design and the filling of the data center with what is stated in the documents is another big question.

All these loopholes cause indignation of those who are certified in strict accordance with the accepted procedure and spend time and money on it. Other companies just mislead customers, which can not but affect the attitude to the entire IT infrastructure market.

As a result, a number of respected players on the data center market refuse to spend additional money and buy similar certificates for documentation for some of their data centers.

What to do with it

Not everything is so bad. Official appraisers understand how the situation develops. Uptime Institute (one of such organizations) refused to provide certificates for documentation for data centers located in North America.

Why there - this region was the most problematic from the point of view of competitors' complaints against each other. It is not excluded that this rules will soon become universal for all other data centers in the world.