CenturyLink's Minnesota Data Center Gets Uptime Tier III Certification

CenturyLink received Uptime Institute Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility for its newest data center in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. MP2 is the first data center in Minnesota to receive this award across design, construction and commissioning.

To achieve the certification, a data center requires redundant capacity components and multiple independent distribution paths serving the critical environment, among other requirements. Uptime verifies and issues certifications for design documents separately from finished data centers. Tier Certification from Uptime Institute assures businesses that all elements of the critical infrastructure of a data center are capable of enterprise-grade performance.

CenturyLink has a strategic global commitment to the Tier certification process. It achieved Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility for the second phase of its OC2 data center in Irvine, California, making it the first Uptime Institute Tier Certification of both design and facility in the southern California colocation market. The company is also working toward Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility for colocation data centers in Elk Grove, Illinois, Markham, Ontario, and Hong Kong by the end of 2014. The Hong Kong data center, delivered jointly with Digital Realty Trust, would be the first data center to receive that award in its region.

The Minnesota data center was launched in May. It was delivered with technology partner and developer Compass Datacenters. Compass is a strong proponent of Tier Certification, with CEO Chris Crosby often highlighting its importance. The developer uses one design for all data centers it builds for customers, and that design has been certified as Tier III.

Located in Shakopee, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb, the data center is built to support up to six megawatts and 100,000 square feet of raised floor, the initial phase being 1.2 megawatts on 13,000 square feet, which is a standard capacity of a single Compass data center pod.

“Tier Certification of Design Documents is not easy, but building to that design—and certifying that build—is a key confidence factor for CenturyLink itself and its client base,” said Julian Kudritzki, chief operating officer at Uptime Institute. “When a longstanding colocation leader commits to Tier Certification, it endorses its relevance to the end-user community. The successful implementations of Minneapolis and California have us looking forward to the expanding relationship with CenturyLink, its project teams and technology partners around the world.”

There are two multi-tenant providers with Tier III design certifications in Minnesota: Stream in Chaska and OneNeck IT Solutions in Eden Prairie. ViaWest is currently pursuing a Tier IV design certification in the state. Target operates two enterprise data centers that achieved Tier III for construction and operation sustainability.