Tier III certification difficult, but attainable – MainOne

The General Manager of the MainOne Data Centre subsidiary, MDX-I, Mr. Gbenga Adegbiji, has said that it is difficult to achieve Tier III certification for its data centre, but says it is attainable.

 

He stated this while reacting to a report published in the media (not The PUNCH) that it was difficult for banks or telecommunications operators in Nigeria to attain Tier III standards for their data centre.

While speaking to journalists, Adegbiji shed light on the mandate by the Central Bank of Nigeria for banks in the country to adopt Tier III data centres, and the perception by some industry experts that it was impossible for operators to build such facilities.

According to him, it is difficult to build a Tier III data centre, but not impossible.

He said that the Uptime Institute’s Tier Certification was a performance-based evaluation of a data centre’s specific infrastructure, saying that MainOne and a few other operators had already been able to attain the rigorous Tier III certification for their data centre facilities.

“The Tier III certification implies that the data centre is concurrently maintainable, which means the facility requires no shutdowns for equipment replacement and maintenance.

“A redundant delivery path for power and cooling is added to the redundant critical components of Tier I and II; dedicated site infrastructure, Information Technology space, interruptible power and cooling,” he said.

Adegbiji said that data centre infrastructure costs and operational complexities increased with the Tier level, “which is why some people say it is difficult for banks and telecoms companies to operate.”

He said, “While I admit that it is difficult and near impossible for a renovated and ad hoc data rooms to obtain this certification, a well-designed and purpose-built data centre is expected to have operational sustainability embedded in it and so should not have difficulties going through the rigorous certification.

“The MDX-I Lekki data centre was designed and built in line with the TIA-942 standards (which is the international specifications to which global Data Centers are designed). Our operational processes are developed with good knowledge of our operating environment and benchmarked against international standards. This is why we did not just attain the Uptime Tier III certification, we also obtained the ISO 27001 and the PCIDSS certifications.”

Ozioma Ubabukoh