Largest data center in the Oslo region awarded Tier III Certification

(Oslo, 18. oktober 2019): Basefarm’s data center outside Oslo has been awarded Tier III Certification from the Uptime Institute. The certification supports the company’s strategy to facilitate top-level and secure data centres in central areas where users and expertise are located.

The data centre opened in November 2017 and is the largest in the Oslo region.  Basefarm has large customers in the public sector, banking and finance, telecom and several other industries that rely on having their mission-critical IT systems available at all times.

– Data centres can be configured very differently. The Tier III Design Certification that we have now obtained tells the market what the plant’s construction and architecture guarantees, says Petter M. Tømmeraas, SVP Data Centre Services at Basefarm.

– The certification is based on a comprehensive set of criteria covering mechanical, electrical, structural and facility-specific elements.

The centre at Rasta already has a number of certifications, including ISO 14001, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, ISAE3402 and SOC II. In addition, audits have been conducted by external consultants that confirm that the centre satisfies the requirements for TIA 942 Data Centre Rating III and EN50600 Availability Class 3.

Basefarm’s experience is that different customers may emphasise different certifications. The Uptime Institute certification of design documents covers mechanical and electrical infrastructure, while other data centre standards are more security oriented. For customers with many payment transactions, certifications such as PCI DSS, ISAE3402 and SOC II will be crucial.

The certificates provide tangible proof that Basefarm establishes data centres that meet very high requirements for both uptime and security. Tømmeraas has previously advocated the data centre industry working together to attract large foreign customers to Norway. – It is important to show that many actors in our industry have this type of top certification, he said.

Overall, the Tier III Design Certification confirms that the data centre at Rasta meets extremely stringent requirements for uptime and operation based on its own infrastructure, such as the supply of power should the public supply fail. Tier III requires redundancy in all areas, both in terms of power and cooling.

– By conducting the certification process at design level, Basefarm has documented a comprehensive approach to operational security and risk management, says Christopher Brown, CTO of Uptime Institute.

– The Uptime Institute’s Tier III Certification confirms that the centre is designed in a very specific way as demanded by the market.

– The Tier III Design Certification of our data centre at Rasta tells buyers immediately what the centre guarantees. For the international customers, such certifications provide a reassurance that the data centre is designed according to international standards, says Petter M. Tømmerraas, SVP Data Centre Services at Basefarm.