Digital Realty Trust, Inc. has announced that it has contracted with Uptime Institute to achieve Tier III certification for 20 of its new data center projects worldwide.  To date, five newly completed Turn-Key Flex^SM data centers have received Tier III certification, including two projects in Sydney and two in Melbourne, Australia, and one data center in Trumbull, Connecticut.

"As a global developer, operator and long-term owner of enterprise-quality data centers, we have long since designed our Turn-Key Flex solution to meet rigorous engineering and reliability standards," said Jim Smith, chief technology officer for Digital Realty.  "Working with Uptime Institute to obtain Tier III certifications for these new projects further demonstrates our commitment to meeting these high standards on behalf of our customers."

"We are very pleased to be working with Digital Realty, which has made this significant investment in the Tier III certification process.  Many providers claim to build 'tier III' data centers, but few have the discipline to go through the rigorous process of seeking actual certification," added Julian Kudritski, chief operating officer of Uptime Institute. "The devil is truly in the details, including fuel systems, design temperatures for extreme weather conditions, as well as the integration of electrical and mechanical systems.  Digital Realty has made this commitment because it understands its customers' needs for highly reliable, resilient data center solutions that are designed to operate under the most challenging conditions today and in the future."

Rigorous uptime requirements and long-term viability are usually the reasons for selecting strategic solutions found in Tier III site infrastructure. Tier III site infrastructure solutions also have an effective life beyond the current IT requirement and are typically utilized by organizations that know the cost of a disruption—in terms of actual dollars—and the impact to market share and continued mission imperatives.

Uptime Institute created the standard Tier Classification System as a means to effectively evaluate data center infrastructure in terms of a business' requirements for system availability. The Tier Classification System provides the data center industry with a consistent method to compare typically unique, customized facilities based on expected site infrastructure performance, or uptime. Furthermore, Tiers enable companies to align their data center infrastructure investment with business goals specific to growth and technology strategies.

Digital Realty's Turn-Key Flex^SM solution is a modular approach to delivering secure, enterprise quality data center space to meet customers' just-in-time requirements. Designed to provide maximum flexibility, reliability and efficiency, each Turn-Key Flex facility comes fully commissioned with its own dedicated electrical and mechanical infrastructure.  Utilizing Digital Realty's proprietary POD Architecture® and extensive supply chain, Digital Realty's next generation Turn-Key Flex data center solution is designed for the future and ready today.