OREANDA-NEWS. May 31, 2011. CROC became the first Russian systems integrator to have the design of its new outsourcing data center certified by the Uptime Institute for compliance with the TIER III performance level. Its opening is scheduled for this fall; however site tours are available right now to those who are interested in this innovative project.

“As equipment collocation services are becoming a major share of the IT services market, all competitors who possess their own data storage and processing centers with absolutely different infrastructure capabilities, now declare that they ensure “high operational availability.” The Uptime Institute has developed a multilevel classification system (I-IV) that is used as a global standard for data center infrastructure. CROC's data center design documents have successfully passed Certification for compliance with TIER III Concurrent Maintenance requirements, and this confirms the company's strong plans to deliver high-performance outsourcing services,” said Julian Kudritzki, Vice President, Uptime Institute.

“Many Russian businesses require continuous 24x7x365 IT support. Only a high-reliability data center can meet these rigid requirements. Today we offer a unique integrated proposal — a data center design that is certified for compliance with international standards; and a complete range of systems integrator's services including cloud computing — an increasingly demanded technology in the market. This is a strong confirmation of our team's expertise and professionalism,” said Boris Bobrovnikov, Director General, CROC.

The reliability of construction, power supply and engineering systems were assessed as part of TIER III certification. Successful certification means that any component of data center engineering systems can be concurrently maintained without data center shutdown. TIER III availability of 99.982% means that overall system downtime cannot exceed an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes a year. The data center is equipped with more than 20 cutting-edge engineering systems including uninterrupted power supply, air conditioning, automated gas fire-suppression, structured cabling, security video surveillance, and monitoring systems.

The data center is independent of a particular communications operator. Telecommunication services can be ordered from any operator at the customer's choice. Currently, a fiber-optic ring is under construction, which will connect all three of CROC's data centers into a single network with no less than 300 Gbps data throughput.

The data center will be located in Moscow, in an area of high vehicle access in the territory of a plant near the Aviamotornaya metro station. Its total floor space is 5,000 m2. Four computer rooms on two levels have total floor space of 2,000 m2, including adjacent rooms for power distribution equipment and cooling systems. Rooms for customer personnel with total floor space of 600 m2 are available on the second and third floors. Total power-supply system capacity is 8 MVA.

Four of CROC's engineers have Uptime Institute’s Accredited Tier Designer certificates. The expertise of CROC’s engineers has been proven by the fact that 2 of 3 Tier III Design Certifications in Russia have been completed by CROC: JSC  Megafon's data center in Samara and CROC's new outsourcing data center.