What are data center tiers? In short, they are rankings in how data centers perform. They range from I to IV, with I being the lowest performance ranking and IV being the highest. Data centers are secure, off-site locations which house servers and networking infrastructure. Companies can have their cloud-based servers stored in data centers, allowing data center services Toronto providers, like Pathway Communications to manage their IT needs. Pathway Communications offers the only certified Tier III Data center in Toronto.
How are Tier Rankings Determined?
While there are many different factors utilized by Uptime Institute’s tier ranking system. The most important are listed below:
- Performance
- Vender Neutral
- Technology Neutral
Performance : This is determined by several factors including:
- Availability
- Fault Tolerance
- Redundancy
Vendor Neutral : This means any brand of technology is acceptable and not a determining factor in tier rankings.
Technology Neutral : Rankings do not require any specific type of technology in order to be ranked in a specific tier.
Requirements for Tier I Data Center
As the lowest ranked tier, a tier I data center offers no redundancy with regard to server or data access. This means, if your server goes down there is no way to simply migrate your data to another server in real-time, quickly and seamlessly. It provides only a 99.671% uptime guarantee which equates to 1,729 minutes of downtime per year.
There are no requirements of remote backup, cooling requirements, and uninterrupted power supplies. In most cases, small businesses rely on this tier as an affordable Toronto data center option.
Requirements for Tier II Data Center
While Tier II data centers provide the same features as Tier I, they also provide other more advanced options such as:
- Uninterruptable Power Supplies
- Cooling Options
- Pumps
- Generators
- Redundancy Options
They are required to offer 99.741% uptime which means less than 1,361 minutes of downtime per year.
Requirements for Tier III Data Center
Tier III Data centers provide a far greater degree of redundancy than either Tier I or Tier II. With far more redundancy built-in, there is a 99.982% uptime ranking which equates to less than 95 minutes of downtime per year. Utilizing shared resources across multiple servers, a Tier III data center provides superior backups, remote data recovery, and server redundancy.
Requirements for Tier IV Data Center
The highest ranking among all tiers, a Tier IV data center requires 99.995% uptime which equates to less than 26 minutes of downtime. With fault tolerance built-in, this means if the system fails, access is not interrupted. With this level data center Canada, users will be unaware anything has happened, their connectivity uninterrupted.
If you are looking for the best in data center services, look no further than Pathway Communications.
