Operating a datacenter is a complex business. First you require a building that remains self-sufficient even when it is faced with power consumption levels similar to those of a small town, that fulfils the highest security requirements, and possesses an infrastructure that must ideally be there in duplicate or, better still, triplicate – a redundant system. Maintenance and renovation work or unforeseen disruptions dare not affect operation of the facility in any way. The TIER ranking was developed in order to classify datacenters. Our datacenter is classified as TIER III – the second best ranking that a datacenter can receive. TIER III means a guaranteed availability of 99.98%.
We are not satisfied with merely using the most reliable and trusted components the market has to offer, because we believe that redundancy is the only way to ensure uninterrupted operation. Every component that is used in the network is equipped with two fully independent connections to the power supply. These independent power supplies are available in the entire data center. The network connections used are also fully redundant and operate independently of each another. Separate cable routes mean that all necessary connections are structurally separated as well.
The same applies to the air-conditioning systems and diesel generator sets. The generators are capable of powering the entire datacenter alone. For the most critical components, there is always an equivalent component from a different manufacturer – this means that even if there is a serial error in a certain type of device we still have a backup option. Now we are starting to talk TIER IV ranking – the highest possible datacenter classification.