What is a Data Center Rating? The data center rating system was designed by the Uptime Institute to classify data centers based on several criteria primarily related to uptime, fault tolerance, and availability. The rating system is designed to allow each company to independently understand how a particular data center will perform according to its needs and what can be expected from that data center. Uptime Institute divides the core standards into one to five levels. This global standard allows organizations to compare any two data centers around the world. The final certification highlights the design, structure and operation of the data center. What is a Tier 1 data center? A Tier 1 data center is the most basic type of data center. Tier 1 data centers have dedicated IT service space and equipment located outside the office, uninterrupted power supply, backup power usually provided by internal generators, and computing equipment cooling equipment. Tier 1 data centers also have systems, protocols, and equipment in place to ensure they can remain up and running during normal business hours (such as nights and weekends). What is a Tier 2 data center? Tier 2 data centers have redundant components that provide additional capacity over Tier 1 data centers. These components include diesel generators to provide backup power, pumps or chillers for more reliable additional equipment cooling, and specialized UPS modules to provide reliable power that eliminates voltage dips and spikes. What is a Tier 3 data center? Tier 3 data centers have systems, protocols, and equipment in addition to Tier 2 data centers, allowing personnel to perform upgrades, repairs, and/or changes without shutting down any equipment. Since everything is available simultaneously, teams can make any changes as needed without disrupting service to customers/end users. What is a Tier 4 data center? Tier 4 data centers are equipped with fault tolerance mechanisms on the basis of Tier 3 data centers. The idea is that data centers can stop and prevent certain problems from happening in the first place. The goal of a Tier 4 data center is to provide continuous support and service under any circumstances, and it is the highest level that the Uptime Institute classifies a data center. What is a Tier 5 data center? Tier 5 certification means the data center has met the highest standards for uptime and resiliency in the market today. Level 5 certification was originally developed by colocation and cloud services provider Switch in 2017, and is technically distinct from the four core levels proposed by the Uptime Institute. What is the highest level? According to the Uptime Institute, no level is "better" than another. They believe that businesses should choose a data center that meets their specific needs regarding cost, availability, and more. What is Uptime Institute? Uptime Institute bills itself as an independent advisory body that provides third-party guidance and oversight to the data center industry. Its core mission includes supervising data centers and issuing certificates to give end users of data centers a reason to decide which data center to use. Like 451 Research, Uptime Institute is also a division of The 451 Group.

As we enter the gates of 2023, the data center industry is bound to see faster and newer developments in the new year. We will see the flexibility and immediacy of cloud computing, higher capacity networks and data centers, and data centers that will have more power backup and new energy sources for local consumption. What these will bring, first and foremost, is a more diverse experience. A more personalized user experience will be enabled by higher capacity and proliferation of edge data centers, as well as more flexible 5G and Wi-Fi6. At the same time, operations between various digital touchpoints will be more seamless. In addition, the data center industry will see an increasing demand for speed, with data flowing to and through data centers likely to be faster and with greater capacity. With mid-band 5G and Wi-Fi 6 technologies in deployment, HD video, AR/VR/XR and AI-enabled applications are now able to send more data to the edge and core data centers for processing and storage. At the same time, the industry's growing understanding of sustainability, rising energy costs, and the growing need for sustainable business have forced companies to pay more attention to sustainability, and their environmental footprint has a direct impact on their operating costs and residuals. Data center sustainability is not a question that can be easily answered and requires multiple factors such as the evolution of power and cooling efficiency, monitoring of equipment operation, the flexibility of facilities, and even adjustment of corporate management models. The 9th China (Shanghai) International Data Center Industry Exhibition and the 4th China Data Center Green Energy Conference, organized by CDCC and hosted by Longo Exhibition (Shanghai) Co. As an important product exhibition and technology exchange platform for China's data center industry, IDCE has attracted hundreds of famous enterprises from home and abroad, including Ali Cloud, Tencent Data Center, Huawei, ZTE, etc. In 2022, the exhibition area of IDCE was nearly 11,000 square meters, receiving 11,032 professional visitors and nearly 160,000 online picture and live video viewers, an undeniable industry event. This is an undeniable industry event. At that time, the industry leaders will focus on the development of green energy in data centers, discuss the new trends and directions of the data center industry under the background of the implementation of the national "carbon peak, carbon neutral" strategy, and provide new momentum and new thinking for the development of data centers and the energy industry.