“The Institute’s Tier Classification System ensures a data center facility is designed and built to deliver uptime in accordance with its business requirements; Operational Sustainability ensures the site is managed to sustain that level of availability over the long-term,” said Julian Kudritzki, vice president, Uptime Institute, LLC. “Another benefit of the Operational Sustainability Standard is that the risks and behaviors are prioritized to help owners and operators maximize staffing and budget resources.”

The Institute created Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability in response to data center operators’ needs for an industry standard to minimize operational risk and maximize uptime. The Institute’s Owners Advisory Committee (OAC), which is composed of 29 global data center owners, has reviewed the standard and will adjudicate any changes.

The Operational Sustainability Standard, which works in tandem with the Institute’s international Tier Classification System, is structured around the three most influential elements of a data center’s ongoing performance in the following prioritized order: management & operations, building characteristics, and site location.

Each of the three Operational Sustainability Elements has multiple categories and components pertinent to a data center’s Tier level. Detailed tables are provided in Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability.

On May 10th, The Uptime Institute announced it incorporated the Owners Advisory Committee’s (OAC) first recommended modification into the data center Tier Classification System. The OAC is composed of 29 data center owners who provide oversight and guidance to ensure the Uptime Institute’s Tier Standards continue to be useful to data center owners and operators. The Tier Classification System is the international standard for objectively evaluating a data center’s performance capability in respect to its business requirements.

The Uptime Institute has agreed to incorporate the results of the OAC vote-a new minimum requirement- into Tier Standard: Topology, the authoritative documentation of the Tier requirements. This new requirement calls for a minimum of 12 hours of fuel storage for the engine-generator plant at “N” capacity. Although the OAC pinpointed this new specification during deliberations on the definition and requirements of Tier I, it affects all four Tiers since each data center Tier incorporates the criteria of those beneath it.