If you have been around the data center industry you have no doubt heard claims of Tier III and Tier IV rated data centers. Sometimes, companies want or need to know how their own data centers measure up. Many co-Location providers will market their data centers referring to Tier levels. You will hear people refer to Uptime tiers and TIA-942 tiers, certifications and compliance but what does this all mean? What is the difference? In this article we hope to make some sens