BBVA’s Data Center renews its Tier IV gold certification for operational sustainability
BBVA has successfully renewed the Tier IV Gold certification for its Data Processing Center (DPC) in Tres Cantos (Madrid), the highest recognition awarded by the Uptime Institute for the management and running of these cutting-edge technology complexes. This achievement has been made possible thanks to the implementation of more than 30 energy-saving measures in recent years.
The Tier IV Gold Certification for Operational Sustainability provides assurance that a data center is run efficiently, aside from being technically robust and largely immune to operational risks. This accolade ranks the facility among the highest-rated data centers in the world for operational sustainability. The certification is awarded to data centers that not only meet the Tier IV infrastructure standard (maximum redundancy and fault tolerance), but also optimize their operations and maintenance to ensure the utmost uptime and efficiency.
The certification is renewed every three years through a comprehensive audit that verifies ongoing compliance with all pertinent standards. All of this has been made possible by the various operational and energy efficiency initiatives to have been carried out at the center. Over the past few years, more than 30 energy-saving measures have been implemented. Notably, the enclosure of cold aisles at the rack/cabinet level has significantly reduced the volume of air that needs cooling, leading to energy savings of more than 800 MWh in the first year of implementation.
Meanwhile, the operational settings of the data center have been optimized to ensure early compliance ahead of the European Union’s energy efficiency guidelines. The bank has also installed an on-site photovoltaic solar plant that generates up to 460 kW, exclusively for self-consumption at the DPC. Moreover, it has implemented a Learning Management System (LMS) to reinforce the technical skills of operations staff in critical areas related to the data center’s energy efficiency.
This re-certification is a further testament to BBVA’s discipline in adhering to the management and operational practices needed to uphold high standards of performance and energy efficiency, according to Uptime Institute criteria. Furthermore, the bank has achieved its highest score to date for the BBVA Tres Cantos complex.
An international benchmark
The Uptime Institute’s Tier IV Certification for Operational Sustainability offers owners, operators, and managers of data centers an assessment of priority initiatives and specific operational risks, providing a template for effective and efficient management. Established over 30 years ago, the Uptime Institute’s Tier classification standards for data centers are now internationally recognized benchmarks when it comes to DPC performance and reliability.
A Tier IV data center is designed with multiple independent and physically isolated systems that serve as redundant capacity components and distribution paths. The separation of these systems is critical to ensure that no single incident can affect them all. To meet this standard, all equipment must be backed by a fault-tolerant power design. BBVA also has two other Tier IV Gold-certified data centers: one in Mexico and another at Garanti BBVA in Türkiye.