Why Data Center Uptime Matters in a Global Business World

August 21, 2019

As more businesses become globally active, they will need to define their business as multilocal to sustain customer loyalty across regions via support of their cloud and data center strategies. This makes uptime and the choice of data center tiers a vital aspect of fulfilling customer expectations and their global employees.

The need for maximum uptime goes beyond ecommerce to businesses operating in B2B as well as B2C sectors. Most businesses operating globally rely on a Tier 3 data center to provide services and application access to a customer base and distributed workforce. Understanding why data center uptime is so important to globally operating SMBs and enterprises starts with understanding of Tier 3 data center requirements.

Data center tiers one through four are a standard way data centers are ranked for potential infrastructure performance (uptime). The higher ranking of 3 provides a greater guarantee of uptime than lower ranking data centers. As defined by the Uptime Institute, Tier 3 data centers have met the certification for a 99.982% uptime percentage per year.

That translates to a maximum total yearly downtime of 94.6 minutes or 1.5768 hours, which is low enough to meet the needs of businesses relying on mission-critical applications. A data center provider holding a Tier 3 certification can ensure what is known concurrent maintainability.

A data center meeting Tier 3 data center requirements has two power distribution paths to customers’ equipment, which allows the loss of one path without impacting operations. The data center will therefore have dual uninterrupted power supply (UPS) feeds to every cabinet. That also includes N+1 UPS systems, power generators ,and cooling systems to ensure sustained, reliable operations in the event of a utility power failure.

This redundancy is critical for any business requiring constant access to mission-critical applications serving a distributed enterprise/workforce and a global customer base. Besides the need for constant application access, many businesses have also made the leap to IoT for a variety of uses including supply chain logistics , omni-channel/touchpoint marketing data support and its ability to support new lines of business.

While there are many other ways IoT is applied across these global businesses, it is the data analytics derived from IoT sensors that are the critical component to customer services fulfillment, monitoring, management, and satisfaction. By partnering with a Tier 3 data center boasting broad cloud and data center connectivity, these businesses gain access to real-time data for actionable decisions.

Another important aspect of choosing a data center provider with the best data center tiers is the need for disaster recovery (DR) in the event of business downtime from man-made or natural disasters. In the digital age where cyber-attacks are the main culprit of downtime, the connection between DR services site choices and uptime derived from a Tier 3 data center are clear.

For any business operating globally, understanding Tier 3 data center requirements will clearly show what uptime means for operational stability and growth. At Telehouse, we’ve made it our business to provide customers with services and certifications that poise them for global operating efficiency. That’s why we make our data center tier-level guide available as part of our mission.