September 11, 2006

IT infrastructure solution provider Lee Technologies says it has introduced the Tiered Infrastructure Maintenance Standards (TIMS), designed to offer data center and IT managers a set of new tools for evaluating their maintenance programs.

TIMS will also enable them to fully understand specific levels of risk and how to effectively allocate resources.

Lee Technologies says the IT industry has standardized on a tier-level ranking system developed by the Uptime Institute, which offers a road map on how to build data center infrastructure and to address specific reliability requirements. Tiers from I to IV describe levels of data center strength.

TIMS, says Lee, is organized according to four service tiers. With TIMS 1, the service is reactive, creating system weaknesses and overloading.

TIMS 2 is unstructured, where maintenance is haphazard and risk of human error is elevated.

TIMS 3 is structured and includes formal staff training, libraries of service and standard operation procedures for all site equipment and a robust vendor management program.

TIMS 4 is considered facilitated with a structured maintenance combined with important components, such as building management systems that continually monitor the infrastructure, trends equipment performance and enables automated control for equipment sequence.

"Great strides have been made in the reliability of electronic, mechanical and electrical systems. However, as demand increases more stress is placed on these critical components," says John Lee IV, Lee Technologies' founder and president.

"The goal of TIMS is to set a standard that the industry can use to measure their current operation and help them plan a successful maintenance strategy.

In a typical data center, there are UPS systems, air conditioning, generators and other critical equipment, which amounts to a significant amount of mission-critical infrastructure systems.

Who's maintaining it? Who follows up on recommendations for fixes? TIMS is a great tool for mitigating this compounded risk."

Source: The WHIR