Data centers are constructed to provide high-quality storage and hosting services for all business setups of all kinds and sizes. Vendors offering these sophisticated IT services ensure to deliver 99.999 percent uptime to provide complete peace of mind for their customers. As securing client data is a big responsibility, service providers have to make persistent efforts to protect their infrastructure from vulnerabilities like power failure, natural disasters and cyber-attacks.

To help potential clients of data center facilities, The Uptime Institute has created a four-tier ranking system to provide a benchmark to identify a reliable service provider. This institute has developed a standard four-tier ranking system to explain reliability of data center. This ranking system starts with Tier I data centers (warehouse with power supply) and continues to Tier II and Tier III and end up at Tier IV (data storage warehouses with extra cooling and redundant power supply. Facilities are ranked by storage capacities, power and cooling facilities they possess to offer its clients.

How is T 3 datacenter helping businesses?
100% uptime is critically essential for every business. Organizations require uninterrupted access to their files to serve their clients efficiently. This why tier 3 data centers have become the best bet for the enterprises seeking non-stop business continuity. Redundant power and cooling supplies will offer them maximum uptime. In addition to providing continuity, these IT vendors pay particular attention to maintenance to keep all the components functional. Surplus availability of components will help them to fulfil the promise of 100% uptime, even in the absence or unavailability of one component. Functionalities and infrastructure remain unaffected in case of power and cooling failures.

What are standard features of Tier 3 data centers?
When we talk about Tier III data storage facilities, it involves features like power supply, cooling and building infrastructure fronts to the levels of a server rack. It doesn’t include architectural design and construction of IT facility. If you are seeking for an IT facility offering file storage, look for these standard features to avail the benefits of using T3 data centers.

Presence of reliable power supply
According to the quality standards given by the Uptime Institute; facilities should not solely depend on utility power supply for electricity. They consider it an unreliable source of power.  A reliable IT vendor must have diesel generators as a backup to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Power supplies are connected with an automatic transfer switch (ATS) to automatically switch over the backup generators without delay. Tier 3 facilities possess two ATS switches fitted parallel to each other to ensure redundancy and maintainability.

Availability of backup generators
Diesel generator with a reserve of fuel supply for minimum 12 hours is a mandatory requirement of Tier III facilities. The facility should have two tanks each with a capacity to store fuel for 12 hours. Moreover, both the tanks possess two or more fuel pipes for the tank to maintain continuous fuel flow to generators, without affecting the fuel supply towards generators.

Separate power distribution panels
Power distribution panels are necessarily required to distribute electricity to the IT devices like servers and networks via UPS and generators. Distribution boards also provide power for non-computing devices like air conditioning units and components of infrastructure systems. ATS is used for used to maintain redundancy and simultaneousness, separate distribution panels. If a single board is fitted with two ATS, it has to be switched off for the maintenance or replacement of any component.

This is why Tier 3 facilities require two or more power lines between ATS, power distribution panel and UPS to maintain uninterrupted flow.

Multiple UPS for server racks and network infrastructure
UPS are critical for any IT facility. When it comes to T3 storage, they become mandatory. They facilitate power supply from distribution panel to servers and network infrastructures. Redundancy can be maintained after distributing the KVs among UPS units. Each UPS unit is connected with just a single distribution box to ensure redundancy and maintenance. This will help to avoid single UPS failure if single power distribution circuit goes down due to UPS maintenance and failure.

Dual power supply for server racks
Server racks are the data banks of storage facilities. They need continuous power supply without delay. This is why they are connected with two power distribution boxes to fulfil the description of T3 IT facility. A static switch is fitted to supply electricity from both power distribution boxes to give single output and transfer power distribution box in milliseconds to another power supply in case of failures to eliminate downtime of servers.

Endnote:
T3 data centers have become popular among organisation due their quality and reliability. Business owners should consider these key points to select the best IT facility to avail uninterrupted access to their data and clients.