Should raised floor be removed from the Tier IV data center standard?

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Should raised floor be removed from the Tier IV data center standard?

Posted: January 29, 2009

The Tier IV data center classification is the gold standard of computer room facilities. The Uptime Institute defines a number of criteria that enterprise data centers and colocation facilities must meet in order to achieve tier IV status.

The biggest difference between tier III and tier IV is uptime levels: tier IV data centers provide 99.995% uptime, commonly referred to as 4 1/2 9’s. This is accomplished through a hardened data center facility with multiple redundant systems that not only back each other up, but allow for concurrent maintainability. In another post, I wrote about how to decide whether you need a tier IV data center.

One of the Tier IV criteria is a minimum three foot deep raised floor. Yet many IT professionals and outsource data center providers believe that raised floor does not belong in the standard.

Back in the 1960s, most of the mainframe equipment in the enterprise data center was cooled from the bottom up. Raised floor acted as a giant plenum or superduct that provided cool air to the equipment. Much of the equipment also was cabled from the bottom, so over time many raised floors became a jumble of electrical and communications cabling, impeding air flow and hiding the sins of installers and maintainers.

Today, virtually all equipment in small and large data centers is cooled from front to back. Raised floor is still used as a plenum, and is often used as the pressurized air input in a hot aisle/cold aisle configuration.

But more and more enterprise data centers and outsource data centers are switching back to solid floor with overhead power and cabling. The benefits of solid floor are lower installation and maintenance costs, more reliable floor loading, and cleaner cable and power management with better air flow. And many solid floor proponents also say that they can cool the densest implementations just as well in solid floor data center as in a raised floor environment.

The telecommunications industry standard mentions raised floor but does not condone or require them. TIA 942 compliant data centers don’t require raised floor.

Do you think raised floor belongs in the tier IV data center criteria?

Categories: 99.995 Uptime, Data Center, Tier 4 Data Center, Tier IV Data Center

One Response to “Should raised floor be removed from the Tier IV data center standard?”

John Tourloukis (January 14th, 2010 at 2:51 pm)

No need with good sound design. I’ve talked to the engineers at the Uptime Institue and they do not require raised floor. But remember Tier 4 Cert only looks within the four wall and is very heavily focused on power.

Since 2001, Lifeline Data Centers has helped companies improve uptime and control data center facilities costs. Lifeline is an innovator in strategic data center outsourcing designed to reduce risks and improve IT return on investment. Our approach has been simple: delight customers with flexible, cost-effective data center space and services.

Lifeline provides facilities where companies can host their primary computer systems, disaster recovery sites and network cores. At a minimum, we provide hardened buildings, power, cooling, security and fire suppression. Some clients choose to use Lifeline as a “high tech landlord.” Other clients use the data center along with Lifeline’s managed services to augment or completely outsource their information technology infrastructure.

Lifeline Data Centers serves over 130 companies in industries ranging from health care and retail, to government and biotechnology. Regardless of the size or complexity of your data center needs, Lifeline Data Centers offers outsource data center facilities solutions.