Uptime Institute Awards India's First Tier Certifications

NEW YORK, March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Five Datacraft onecloud Data Center Designs Receive Tier III Certification, On Track for the Largest Portfolio of Tier Certified Data Centers in the World

Uptime Institute (http://www.uptimeinstitute.org/), an industry thought leader in research, education and consulting for all aspects of the data center, today announced the completed Certification of the design of five Datacraft onecloud data centers in India as Tier III Concurrently Maintainable. A Tier III Certification signifies true 24x7 availability as the data centers are designed specifically to ensure that no downtime occurs due to equipment maintenance or replacement.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110330/SF73869LOGO)

A total of six Datacraft onecloud data centers will receive Uptime Institute's Design and Facility Certification this year. Upon completion, this will represent the largest portfolio of Tier Certified data centers in the world. Datacraft's design-build partner for all of these sites is Emerson Network Power India.

Uptime Institute is currently processing 11 Tier III and IV Certifications in India alone. These agreements, all signed within the last four months, demonstrate the level of demand and explosive growth of the Indian market for highly available data centers.

"Datacraft exemplifies market leadership in India with Uptime Institute's Tiers Classification and Certification System, distinguishing Datacraft as exceptional among Indian providers with independent verification of continuous availability," said Martin McCarthy, Uptime Institute executive chairman. "Tier Certification is insurance for substantial data center investment without impacting or restricting important speed to market. We anticipate that Tier Certification will become commonly adopted in the booming Indian data center market by top enterprises and service providers who want to assure investment value and ensure that business objectives of availability can be met."

"The fact that all six of our data center facilities in India will be Uptime Institute Tier III Certified by the end of 2011 illustrates our commitment to deliver best-in-class services," said Dilip Kumar, COO of Datacraft Asia, Pte Ltd. "These facilities, built in partnership with BSNL, operate under the brand onecloud - and provide a comprehensive range of co-location, hosted, cloud and managed services, particularly to the government and public sectors. With the Uptime Institute Certification, our clients can be assured that our IT services provide business continuity, security and system availability to world-class standards. Tier III Certification gives our data centers a mark of excellence."

"These Certifications demonstrate that the Tiers are both applicable and recognizable around the world. The Tier system allows comparison and recognition of data center strength and sophistication that transcend borders or time zones," said Julian Kudritzki, Vice President of Uptime Institute. "In India and the 29 other countries where we are awarding Tier Certifications to data centers, there is no conflict between code, regulation, or law and the Uptime Institute's Standards."

Tier Certification is a third-party, unbiased validation of a data center's capability to perform maintenance or respond to a fault without affecting the data center's availability. It is the only Certification to the Uptime Institute's Tier Classification System (Tier I-IV).

About Uptime Institute

Uptime Institute is an unbiased, third-party data center research, education and consulting organization focused on improving data center performance and efficiency. The Institute serves all stakeholders of the data center industry, including enterprise and third-party owners and operators, manufacturers, providers and engineers. Uptime Institute Professional Services is the data center management and engineering consulting offering of Uptime Institute. It delivers due diligence assessments and Certifications of site infrastructure and site management in accordance with the Tier and Operational Sustainability Standards.

Serving clients worldwide, Uptime Institute Professional Services is delivering consulting, Certifications and Accreditations in over 50 countries. For additional information see http://professionalservices.uptimeinstitute.com.

Uptime Institute is a part of The 451 Group, a leading independent IT research and analyst organization focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The 451 Group also operates Tier 1 Research, which analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments impacting public and private companies within the hosting, communications and Internet infrastructure sectors.

About Datacraft

Datacraft is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data plc, a US $4.7 billion leading global IT solutions and services provider. Datacraft operates in over 60 offices across 13 Asia Pacific countries. We help clients plan, build, support, manage, improve and innovate their IT infrastructures. Datacraft combines an expertise in networking, security, data centre solutions, Microsoft solutions and converged communications & contact centre technologies, with advanced skills in consulting, integration, training and managed services to craft IT solutions for businesses. For more information, please visit http://www.datacraft-asia.com