¿What is TIER?

¿What is TIER?

TIER

The TIER concept is related to the level of reliability and security of a datacenter, it is related to 4 defined certification levels. The higher the TIER number, the greater the benefits, availability, security, and this is also reflected in the costs associated with construction or implementation. Currently, there are 4 different TIER types defined in the world, and in order from least to greatest they are:

TIER I: Basic Datacenter - reliability of 99,671%.

  • Service may be interrupted by planned or unexpected activities or actions.
  • It does not have the appropriate and special elements for the distribution of energy and refrigeration.
  • May or may not have raised floors, auxiliary power generators, or UPS.
  • The data center will be put out of service once a year, in order to perform maintenance activities or if necessary.


TIER II: Redundant Datacenter - reliability of 99,741%.

  • It is less susceptible to interruptions due to planned or unexpected activities.
  • Redundant components (N+1)
  • It has raised floors, auxiliary power generators or UPS.
  • They are connected to a single line of electrical load and refrigeration.
  • If the datacenter requires maintenance of any cold or electrical distribution component or other parts of the infrastructure, it requires an interruption in service.


TIER III: Concurrently Maintainable Datacenter - 99.982% reliability.

  • Programming of maintenance actions is possible without the need to interrupt the service.
  • Unplanned events may cause an unplanned service stoppage.
  • Redundant components (N+1)
  • It connects to multiple electrical load and refrigeration lines, however only one remains active; the others are backup lines.
  • Maintenance by lines is possible without interruption of the computing service, due to its distribution capacity.


TIER IV: Fault-tolerant Datacenter - 99.995% reliability.

  • Has the ability to withstand at least one unplanned 'worst case scenario' event without critical impact on cooling and electrical load.
  • It connects to multiple power and cooling distribution lines with multiple redundant components (2 (N+1) means 2 UPS with N+1 redundancy).
  • Maintenance is possible without affecting computing services.


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