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Uptime Institute's Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability provides Tier Certified data center owners, operators, and managers with the prioritized behaviors and risks intrinsic to data center operations and serves as an essential guide for effective and efficient operations. Adherence to the recommended behaviors will assist in attaining the full performance potential of the installed infrastructure, reduce downtime risk, avoid costly errors, and uncover opportunities to increase energy efficiency.

Have a production data center that is not Tier Certified? The same operational validation is available for non-Tier Certified data centers with our Management and Operations Stamp of Approval which can be seen here.

Sustainable Data Center Operations

The Operational Sustainability criteria pinpoint those elements that impact long-term data center availability in three key categories: Management & Operations, Building Characteristics, and Site Location. All three elements impact the performance potential of the Tier topology of the installed infrastructure.

While it’s true that many data center incidents can be attributed directly to human error it could have been mitigated prior to impact. These incidents unfortunately reflects the upstream management decisions regarding staffing levels, training, maintenance, the number and details of processes and procedures, and the overall rigor of the operation. Every aspect of the site infrastructure and management practices must be properly aligned to sustain operations.

Data Center Operational Excellence

The Tier Classification System is the recognized global standard for data center reliability and performance. Achieving Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability verifies that practices and procedures are in place to avoid preventable errors, maintain IT functionality, and support effective site operation. The Certification process ensures operations are in alignment with your organization's business objectives, availability expectations, and mission imperatives.

All Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability awards issued after 1 January 2014 will expire as follows: three years from the award date for Gold, two years for Silver, and one year for Bronze. This will not impact Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability issued or contracted prior to that date.

The Operational Sustainability rating, when determined by Uptime Institute, becomes a suffix to the Tier Certification. Uptime Institute Tier Certification of the installed infrastructure (Tier Certification of Design Documents followed by Tier Certification of Constructed Facility) is a prerequisite to the Operational Sustainability rating.

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