Uptime Institute

Uptime Institute LLC
Type of business Private
Available in English
Founded 1993
Headquarters 20 W. 37th St, New York, NY 10018, United States
Area served North America, South America, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, South Africa
Founder(s) Kenneth G. Brill[1]
Key people Martin V. McCarthy, CEO
W. Pitt Turner IV P.E., Executive Director, Julian Kudritzki COO, Lee Kirby CTO,
Services Tier Certification
Management and Operations (M&O)
Digital Infrastructure Services
Professional Training & Development
Website http://uptimeinstitute.com

Uptime Institute is an unbiased advisory organization focused on improving the performance, efficiency, and reliability of business critical infrastructure through innovation, collaboration, and independent certifications. It is best known for its widely adopted[2] tier certifications[3] of data centers.

History

Founded in 1993 by Kenneth G. Brill, the Uptime Institute was acquired by The 451 Group.[4]

Since then, the Uptime Institute has been an independent division of The 451 Group[5] which is headquartered in New York with offices in locations including San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Boston, Seattle, Denver, São Paulo, Dubai, and Singapore.

The 451 Group also owns 451 Research, a technology-industry syndicated research and data firm.

Business

Uptime Institute serves all stakeholders responsible for IT service availability through industry leading standards, education, peer-to-peer networking, consulting, and award programs delivered to enterprise organizations and third-party operators, manufacturers, and providers. Uptime Institute is recognized globally for the creation and administration of the Tier Standards & Certifications for Data Center Design, Construction, and Operations, along with its Management & Operations (M&O) Stamp of Approval, FORCSS® methodology, and Efficient IT Stamp of Approval.

Uptime Institute – The Global Data Center Authority®, a division of The 451 Group, has office locations in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, U.K., Spain, U.A.E., Russia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Visit www.uptimeinstitute.com for more information. [6]

Tier certifications

The Uptime Institute's data center tier concepts have grown from a publication in the late 1990s of the Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance white paper[7] to a standard guiding design and investment for data centers globally.[8] The data center tier standards are a standardized methodology used to determine availability in a facility. It offers companies a way to measure return on investment (ROI) and performance.[9] There are two forms of Tier Certifications:

The tier certification refers only to the physical topology of the data centers' infrastructure that directly affects the computer room operation.[10] The certifications are awarded in four levels:

The full Tier Standard: Topology is available on the Uptime Institute website[11]

The Uptime Institute's Tier Certification does not pertain to the Telecommunications Industry Association's standard, TIA-942.[12] Uptime Institute and TIA agree on clear separation between their respective benchmarking systems to avoid industry confusion and drive accountability.[13]

Another classification models is the Availability Environment Classification (AEC) of the Harvard Research Group, which ranges from AEC-0 to AEC-5.

Operational Sustainability certification

In addition to the aforementioned tier certification, Uptime Institute also awards Operational Sustainability certification[14] which aims at management, operations and maintenance of the site rather than its design topology. The Operational Sustainability establishes the behaviours and risks beyond the Tier Classification System (I, II, III, IV) that impact long-term data center performance. It builds a bridge between the site management behaviours and the Tier functionality of the site infrastructure. The three major elements of Operational Sustainability certification are

Operational Sustainability Certification is issued in three levels:

The Operational Sustainability certification becomes suffix to Tier Certification, thus leading to e.g. Tier III Gold.[15]

The Brill Awards

In September, 2013 the Uptime Institute announced the creation of the Brill Awards (named in honor of the late founder of the Uptime Institute, Ken Brill). The Awards are described as having been created 'to recognize efficiency in the broadest sense of the word—efficiency of capital deployment, technology, design, operations, and overall management'.[16][17]

The Awards recognize IT efficiency in five categories, across four global regions: North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. Judges will consider the merits of projects in each of the five categories. At their discretion, as many as 20 worldwide Brill Award winners will be selected.

The categories are:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kenneth G. Brill ’66 at redlands.edu
  2. ↑ Data Center Tiers at glohse.com
  3. ↑ Tier Certification at uptimeinstitute.com
  4. ↑ Company Overview of The 451 Group LLC at investing.businessweek.com
  5. ↑ The 451 Group - Our Company at 451research.com
  6. ↑ https://uptimeinstitute.com/about-ui/news-press
  7. ↑ Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance by W. Pitt Turner IV P.E. et al.
  8. ↑ Uptime Institute Tier Standard Owners Advisory Committee at oac.uptimeinstitute.com
  9. ↑ Uptime data center tier standards at techtarget.com
  10. ↑ The Uptime Institute Tier Classification System: Comparison with TIA-942 at uptimeinstitute.com
  11. ↑ http://uptimeinstitute.com/publications
  12. ↑ TIA-942 TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers at ihs.com
  13. ↑ http://uptimeinstitute.com/component/content/article/8-certifications/203-tiersvstia2014
  14. ↑ Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability at uptimeinstitute.com
  15. ↑ Uptime Institute Tier Classification at dc-jakarta.com
  16. ↑ 'Home / The Brill Awards for Efficient IT' retrieved Feb 20th, 2014
  17. ↑ Datacenterknowledge.com 'Uptime Institute Announces Brill Awards for Efficient IT' September 30th, 2013, retrieved Feb 21st, 2014
  18. ↑ Uptime Institute website, Apply for the Brill Awards for Efficient IT: Data Center Design Category
  19. ↑ Uptime Institute website, Apply for the Brill Awards for Efficient IT: Operational Data Center Upgrade Category
  20. ↑ Uptime Institute website, Apply for the Brill Awards for Efficient IT: Data Center Facilities Management Category
  21. ↑ Uptime Institute website, Apply for the Brill Awards: IT Systems Efficiency Category
  22. ↑ Uptime Institute website, Apply for the Brill Awards for Efficient IT: Product Solutions Category
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