Tier Certification of Constructed Facility ensures that your facility has been constructed as designed, and verifies that it is capable of meeting the defined availability requirements. Even the best laid plans can go awry, and common construction phase practices or value engineering proposals can compromise the design intent of a data center.

With multiple vendors, subcontractors, and typically more than 50 different disciplines involved in any data center project—structural, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fuel pumps, networking, and more—it would be remarkable if there were no errors or unintended risks introduced during the construction process. Tier Certification of Constructed Facility lets you ensure your facility is built to its intended performance capacity, effectiveness, and reliability.

The Tier Certification of Constructed Facility process includes live system demonstrations under real-world conditions, validating performance according to your organization’s Tier objective. The award is based on review of multiple mechanical and facility criteria as defined in the Tier Standard: Topology, the globally recognized benchmark for data center reliability and effectiveness.

Tier Certification of Constructed Facility seamlessly integrates into the project schedule. The process ensures that deficiencies in the design are identified, solved, and tested before you commence operations. When the consequences of failure can be significant—site impact, business cost, and market perception—Tier Certification of Constructed Facility allows you to rest assured knowing there are no unforeseen risks, shortfalls, or weak links in your infrastructure.

Tier Certification of Design Documents is a prerequisite for Tier Certification of Constructed Facility.

Tier Certification of Constructed Facility is a prerequisite for Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability 

The Project General Company can provide uses Uptime Institute’s Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability standards to  provide 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.

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

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.