Intelligent Data Centres Issue 45 | Page 48

END USER INSIGHT
Challenge
Businesses across Belgium and beyond have undergone a massive Digital Transformation in recent years and have never been more reliant on critical infrastructure . Datacenter United ’ s customers require optimal data redundancy and demand reliability guarantees at the infrastructure level . These guarantees are especially vital for larger cloud and telecom providers , but also for companies with high market visibility , such as e-commerce platforms or organisations that deal with highvalue data networks ( e . g ., governments , healthcare providers , banks and financial services firms , military departments , etc .).
Uptime Institute ’ s Tier IV TCCF Certification provides data centre owners , operators and end-users with verification that their facility offers not only basic capacity , redundancy and concurrent maintainability , but is also supported by completely fault-tolerant infrastructure . Sites with Tier IV Certification can demonstrably prevent individual equipment downtime , distribution path interruptions and other catastrophic infrastructure failures from impacting critical IT and business operations .
Although this level of assurance is in high demand among 24x7 digital-first organisations , many in Belgium believed the fact that there is only one national grid operator in the country meant achieving a Tier IV-Certified data centre would be impossible .
So to separate itself from competitors , demonstrate its continued innovation and prove its ability to meet these critical customer demands , Datacenter United set out to do the ‘ impossible ’ and earn a Tier IV Certification of Constructed Facility ( TCCF ) for its Antwerp data centre .
Solution
Datacenter United ’ s team worked closely with Uptime throughout the entire project to bring Belgium its first and only Tier IV data centre . From the earliest stages of the Antwerp data centre Tier Certification of Design Documents , Datacenter United took the time to understand the criteria involved in achieving Tier IV fault tolerance and worked diligently to make it a reality .
In July 2021 , the team began pursuing the Antwerp data centre Tier IV TCCF in earnest and prepared with countless tests and dry runs in the months leading up to the certification evaluations . The official demonstrations took place between December 2021 and early 2022 .
Along the way , Uptime ’ s personnel were available to answer questions and provide direction for the Datacenter United team . The teams worked together through challenges such as delays with the completion of a cooling unit , small infrastructure adjustments with significant repercussions and more . The Datacenter United team attributes its ability to overcome unforeseen challenges throughout the certification process to
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