Every day, we check emails, post our latest updates to various social media platforms. Some of us even manage our personal blog or website. Have you ever wondered what is behind all these online activities? When you post or upload something online, where does the data go?
The answer is Data Centre.
But, what is a Data Centre?
A data centre is a facility composed of networked computers and storage. Companies, big or small, use the facility to organize, process, store and distribute large amounts of data.
Enterprises usually rely heavily on the applications, services, and data contained in the data centre, making it the focus and key asset of their daily operations.
Data Centre Tier Ratings: How to choose the right tier?
When looking for a data centre, it’s important to understand these ratings because they can provide you with uptime guidance, and uptime determines how long the data centre can be fully operational.
Uptime Institute‘s rating began in the mid-1990s. This is a white paper, “Classification Defines Site Infrastructure Performance”. The purpose is to outline the standards for data centre design and investment.
Since then, these ratings have been helping data centres achieve high-quality levels to ensure uptime.
Data centers can be divided into 4 tiers. Each tier has increasing requirements.
Tier 1 Data Centre
Small businesses usually take advantage of the requirements of Tier 1 data centers, which have the following characteristics:
- 99.671% Uptime
- Zero redundancy
- 28.8 hours of annual downtime
- If you are a small business, tier 1 may be ideal for you. This is a cost-effective solution.
- Although tier 4 data centres do not have the functions of large centres, they have generators or backup cooling systems.
Tier 2 Data Centre
The benefits offered by Tier 2 facilities include:
- 99.749% Uptime
- Partial redundancy in power and cooling
- 22 hours of annual downtime
Tier 2 data centres are for small and medium enterprise customers. It is more efficient than the level II system. Secondary providers can also handle more customers.
Companies whose network traffic matches small businesses are best suited for this level. In most cases, it is much cheaper than Tier 3.
Tier 3 Data Centre
Large enterprises use tier 3 data center specifications and have the following characteristics:
- 99.982% uptime (Tier 3 uptime)
- N+1 fault-tolerant
- 72-hour power outage protection
- 1.6 hours of annual downtime
Companies that use Tier 3 providers are usually growing companies or companies that are larger than the average small and medium-sized enterprise. Most data center companies ranked by the Uptime Institute have a Class 3 ranking.
The tier 3 also has lower charges than the tier 4. If you have a budget constraint, you can choose tier 3 and expand to higher levels in the future.
Tier 4 Data Centre
Tier 4 data centre certification usually provides services for enterprise companies using the following guarantees and benefits:
- 99.995% uptime per year
- Zero single points of failure
- 2N+1 fully redundant infrastructure
- 96-hour power outage protection
- 26.3 minutes of annual downtime
Tier 4 is considered enterprise-level services. If you need to host mission-critical servers, tier 4 data centers are for you. The tier 4 data centre can ensure the safety of your business, including taking care of mechanical failure.
It offers complete fault tolerance so that your business will not be slowed down by any issues.
Tier 4 colocation is definitely the most expensive option. This is why this level is dominated by international brands with consistently high levels of traffic or processing demand.
Exabytes Tier 3 Data Center
Exabytes Malaysia Data Center has multiple backbones from Tier III ISPs which allow global reach and fantastic QOS. It is the only IP transit service in Malaysia that provides SLAs.
Connected with good latency to major destinations worldwide and an estimate of 0.01% packet loss rate across the network. At present, we are in the progress of upgrading our facilities to the highest level, Tier IV.
The various environmental aspects of the data center including power, cooling, fire suppression and security are looked after by a central management system. The Exabytes Malaysia Data Center NOC monitors this system 24x7x365.
Visit to Exabytes Server Colocation Malaysia for more details.
