Israel’s largest bank achieves Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility

NEW YORK (July 9, 2015) – Uptime Institute recently awarded Israel’s largest financial institution, Bank Hapoalim, Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility for its ROTEM data center.

Uptime Institute created the standard Tier Classification System in 1993 to consistently evaluate various data center facilities in terms of potential site infrastructure performance, or uptime. The Tiers (I-IV) are progressive Tier I being the most basic to Tier IV as fault-tolerant; each Tier incorporates the requirements of all the lower Tiers.

A Tier III data center requires no shutdowns for equipment replacement and maintenance. A redundant delivery path for power and cooling is added to the redundant critical components of so that each and every component needed to support the IT processing environment can be shut down and maintained without impact on the IT operation.

This is the first Tier Certified data canter facility awarded in Israel, which signifies that the design, construction, and commissioning meet the Uptime Institute's rigorous criteria for Concurrent Maintainability. To date, Uptime Institute has awarded nearly 170 Tier Certifications of Constructed Facilities in 43 countries.

Financial organizations require maximum uptime, and the rigorous planning, execution, and system testing under real-world conditions speaks to Hapoalim Bank’s commitment to IT availability. The award is based on review of multiple mechanical and facility criteria as defined in the Tier Standard: Topology, the globally recognized benchmark for data center uptime.

"To be the first data center in Israel with Tier Certification is part of the bank’s commitment for excellence. The data center facility is critical to the bank in order to offer its customers the most innovative services using the most advanced technological capabilities, with maximum availability", said Shimon Katz the project manager. "The challenge of achieving the Tier Certification to this project, with its unique characteristics, could not have happened without the mutual cooperation of the bank's team along with our partners to the design and implementation of the project".

“The Bank Hapoalim team was highly professional and a pleasure to work with,” said Lee Kirby, Uptime Institute’s Chief Technology Officer. “It was particularly fascinating to work with the additional requirements of a physically protected data center and a testament to the risk assessment process the client applied to this project.”

About Uptime Institute
Uptime Institute is an unbiased advisory organization focused on improving the performance, efficiency, and reliability of business critical infrastructure through innovation, collaboration, and independent certifications. Uptime Institute serves all stakeholders responsible for IT service availability through industry leading standards, education, peer-to-peer networking, consulting, and award programs delivered to enterprise organizations and third-party operators, manufacturers, and providers. Uptime Institute is recognized globally for the creation and administration of the Tier Standards & Certifications for Data Center Design, Construction, and Operations, along with its Management & Operations (M&O) Stamp of Approval, FORCSS^® methodology, and Efficient IT Stamp of Approval.

Uptime Institute ­­– The Global Data Center Authority^®, a division of The 451 Group, has office locations in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, U.K., Spain, U.A.E., Russia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.