Inside Umniah’s Top Tier III Data Center

What is a Data Center?
A data center is a facility that is specialized to host IT systems infrastructure for the purpose of business continuity operations. A data center works around the clock to provide cutting-edge and effective co-location services in preserving the availability of enterprises’ operating in the business sector. In other words, it provides a physical space that customers can rent to house their servers in, instead of keeping their equipment and servers in-house.

Also referred to as colocation, a data center provides enterprises with numerous benefits at a convenient cost, that they otherwise lack if they were to keep their data within their own premises. This includes uninterrupted monitoring in an ideal environment that provides endless sources of energy and air conditioning, in addition to entry and exit monitoring and control systems and fire-detection systems.

Understanding Data Center Rankings
A data center is identified through a four-tier system that is based on its infrastructure, design, and level of service. Tier I and II data centers are the simplest and least redundant of tiers typically used by small businesses that don’t require a lot of data but need the required cooling system for their server equipment. The next level up are Tier III and IV that have more high-tech and sophisticated infrastructure, fully equipped with multiple power sources. A Tier IV is at the top of the ranking level and fully fault tolerant.
A simple way to define a Top Tier III facility is through its disaster recovery protection. Simply put, a Tier III data center prevents a glitch in operation as it offers an N+1 opportunity for all clients. This is what ultimately keeps the center running smoothly in the case of power loss. For instance, in the sudden loss of electricity, the data center’s Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) system will switch on, and if that does not function as planned, the N+1 (the additional UPS with a backup) will immediately switch on, making it the extra protection level of the equation that recovers critical business data.
What’s more, a Tier III data center has no more than 1.6 hours of downtime per year, and that is in the rare case that it happens. Simultaneously, some of this downtime is used for equipment maintenance.
Any company regardless of its size looking to improve and reinforce their performance efficiency and increase their productivity while allowing them to reduce massive costs such as their capital and operational expenses can now rely on a data center, such as the one established by Umniah, for 24/7 provision and continuous around the clock monitoring with the latest state of the art technologies while simultaneously preserving the security of their clients.

Let’s take a tour inside Umniah’s Tier III data center
Upon entering Umniah’s Tier III Data Center in Al-Rashid suburb, you are welcomed with entry monitoring control systems. Security from the outside and inside is tight. There is only one single point of entry and all staff and visitors need to abide by strict procedures so as to identify who is entering and exiting the premises. Once inside a facility, a visitor only has access to certain areas and that is made possible through biometric reading doors. Upon entering the server room, the visitor will have to enter a code to access and open the server cabinet. All these security procedures are risk management tools to keep all data safe and confidential.
Umniah’s Tier III Data Center in Al-Rashid has already received two international awards, the Information Security Management Systems (ISO27001) certification and the Tier III certification for design and constructed facility of data centers worldwide.

Operations
Given the complexity of such a hyper-managed and highly advanced infrastructure, the data center is built in a way that it functions continuously and uninterruptedly without the need to shut down for maintenance. Let’s face it: machines get hot especially when they never switch off. In this case, energy and air cooling work nonstop within the entire center to keep these machines cool and working at their required temperature. If perhaps, the electricity shuts down suddenly, generators will work to keep everything working smoothly. In addition to this, the center has an entire engineering cadre that is qualified and trained to oversee and manage operations.
This high level of operational facility makes the center an ideal choice to protect company data and information safe at all times. At the same time, the secure system is continuously being developed and upgraded to meet industry needs.

Who can benefit from this?
With the constant surge of data and information and the growing demand for ideal physical spaces and processing power, small to medium sized businesses can take advantage of the reliability of a top Tier III Data Center. It is in fact the ideal choice to protect data and systems of organizations in a safe, secure, and reliable environment that is continuously being developed.
Large enterprises that generate and use data with the likes of telecommunication companies, governments, educational institutions, and financial institutions etc. can depend on Umniah’s efficient Tier III data center for business continuity.

Taking the Kingdom to new heights
A modern data center is truly essential for the country’s dynamic business sector and transformation into digital economy. To stay competitive and preserve the continuity of their work, organizations will have to keep innovating their resources in today’s vast market landscape. As a result, they would need to take advantage of new opportunities that provide an ideal environment for computing, management, and technologies.
Umniah has once again proven that it is not only a telecommunications company, but also a fully integrated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service provider. Reaching an impressive 99.982% of high level operational sustainability, the data center can support any workload with modern facility.