Tier Levels for Data Centers

Introduction

Tier level numbers?are used?to classify data centers. This will?be based?on certain requirements when they are being built or renovated. The criteria depend on the institution that sets the requirements. It is usually composed of infrastructure, capacity, functionalities, and operational sustainability.

The?Uptime Institute?and the?Telecommunications Industry Association?are two of the most well-known tiering systems you’ll come across.

The Uptime Institute

Uptime Institute’s?data center standard is the most recognized and referenced. It?was created?in 1995 and serves as a benchmark for assessing data center uptime.

Uptime Institute will verify if the data center’s design fits its?standards for one of four tiers. A Tier level I data center has a single non-redundant distribution line. It serves IT equipment that does not have redundant capacity components. A Tier level IV data center is fault-tolerant with 2N redundant power and cooling, etc.

The Uptime Institute does not disclose all the evaluation criteria for its tiers.?The criteria are broad to allow for “innovation or equipment preferences,” as the institute describes them. Outcome-based confirmation tests and operational impacts are used to examine compliance.

The Uptime Institute added gold, silver, and bronze grades for sustainability in 2013. The new ratings?are based?on the effectiveness of data centers’ operational procedures.

TIA-942

The tier level system of?TIA-942?was first published in 2005.?It?is based?on the structured cabling work outlined in?TIA/EIA-568?as well as The Uptime Institute standard.?TIA-942, like The Uptime Institute’s system, divides data centers into four tiers level.?Since then, the two have agreed to differentiate their benchmarking systems, with the TIA dropping the term “tier”.

A Side-by-Side Look

The Uptime Institute standard and?TIA-942?contain many of the same components, including the use of four-tier levels. The table below provides a comparison of the two systems,?however,?it is not exhaustive.

Tier 1 to 4 data center is a standardized methodology used to define uptime of?data center. This is useful for measuring:

a) Data center performance

b) Investment

c) ROI (return on investment)

Tier 4 data centers are considered as most robust and less prone to failures. Tier 4 is designed to host mission-critical servers and computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems (cooling, power, network links, storage, etc) and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access control methods. Naturally, the simplest is a Tier 1 data center used by small businesses or shops.

Tier 1 = Non-redundant capacity components (single uplink and servers).

Tier 2 = Tier 1 + Redundant capacity components.

Tier 3 = Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Dual-powered equipments and multiple uplinks.

Tier 4 = Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Tier 3 + all components are fully fault-tolerant including uplinks, storage, chillers, HVAC systems, servers etc. Everything is dual-powered.

Data Center Availability According To Tiers

The levels also describe the availability of data from the hardware at a location as follows:

Tier 1: Guaranteeing 99.671% availability.

Tier 2: Guaranteeing 99.741% availability.

Tier 3: Guaranteeing 99.982% availability.

Tier 4: Guaranteeing 99.995% availability.

Modular UPS N+X Power Solution

Applications: Tier 1, Tier 2

Information network power supplying system of industrial users

In the world of data centers, a system also called parallel redundancy is a safeguard to ensure that an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system is always available.

Compare with the standalone UPS 1+1 solution, the modular UPS N+X solution features high reliability and high cost-efficiency.

Only available to get 1 fixed redundancy on standalone UPS 1+1 solution, in modular ups each power module could be the X as redundancy which gets higher reliability.

In the construction of information network power supplying systems of industrial users, they always wrongly estimate the capacity of high-end UPS to lead them to high purchasing costs for the result that cannot be satisfied with the loads' requirements or cause the resources, spaces, and energy waste situations, etc. modular (N+X) can effectively resolve this problem through the extensible module structure, it can help the users to make the next-step UPS construction and investment in the future. When the requirement of using power loads of users is increasing we just need to add the power module piece by the using power planning stage, meanwhile, through the modular integration, the expansibility requirement of the system is able to be satisfied fully and also has the flexible mobility and better reliability which will be the milestone in the power supply protection fields.

Modular UPS 2N Power Solution

Applications: Tier 3, Tier 4

Telecom case

Although an N+1 system contains redundant equipment, it is not, however, a fully redundant system and can still fail because the system is run on?common circuitry or feeds at one or more points rather than two completely separate feeds.

In the cases where UPS is used to power IT equipment, 2N power mode is the safest with the best security solution. 2N power solution, provide two independent power sources to protect the electrical systems against unexpected power failure. The loads are powered by both power sources, or the two sources feed power independently to their own loads.

At a data center, a 2N system contains double the amount of equipment needed that run separately with no single point of failure. These 2N systems are far more reliable than an N+1 system because they offer a fully redundant system that can be easily maintained on a regular basis without losing any power to subsequent systems.?In the event of an extended power outage, a 2N system will still keep things up and running.

Modular UPS?â–³2N Power Solution

Applications: Tier 4

Datacenter case

There are many critical computers and other load equipment in modern datacenter, which has very strict requirement on power supply system. Easy maintenance, easy expansion, fault tolerance, cost-effective, and energy saving are all datacenter user’s concern.

2N power solution and â–³2N power solution both apply to the datacenter equipment. Now we introduce â–³2N power solution in details

â–³2N power solution scheme

1) Normal condition, double bus solution for each group of load. Each UPS could bear load of 66% of rated power max.

2) If one UPS fails, the remaining two UPSs share the three group of load.

Downtime in the data center can mean lost credibility, lost revenue, and lost clients. Therefore, quick responses to faults are necessary to ensure services relying on them are restored at the earliest.

Single Standalone UPS Power Solution

Applications: Tier 1

industrial case

As the development of technology, the performances of UPS are also being perfected. Clients can choose the most suitable single-unit UPS according to the used loads type (inductive load, condensive load, resistive load) and actual load power.

The single unit is composed of the UPS host, standby battery units + battery DC breaker, related input/output power distribution system, testing and maintenance power distribution, emergency main power distribution and so on.?

Standalone UPS 1+1 Power Solution

Applications: Tier 1, Tier 2

Information network power supplying system of industrial users