TIA-942 Certification

The ANSI/TIA-942 Data Center Infrastructure standard is an international standard developed through the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) to identify the requirements and guidelines for the design of data centers. The ANSI/TIA-942 standard covers the telecommunications infrastructure, the power infrastructure, the mechanical infrastructure, the architecture, the fire protection, security, and the monitoring of data centers. TIA-942 covers all types of data centers (Hyperscale, Colocation, Enterprise, etc.).

Anyone or any company wishing to join rhe TR-42 Engineering Committee that is responsible for the TIA-942 standard is welcome to participate.

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For many years, data center owners and operators, along with their customer end users, have requested a TIA-supported certification program to ensure conformance to the TIA-942 standard. While there have been many “inspection” and “auditing” programs available in the marketplace related to the standard, these were conducted without oversight from TIA. Owners and operators requested that TIA create a certification schema to ensure consistent quality and impartiality of the audits, as well as the competency of the auditors.

Owners and operators of data centers may want to demonstrate to their customers that their datacenter meets the resiliency and security rating of TIA-942 TIA-recognized certification. Data center clients may also want to get an independent confirmation that the data centers meets the resiliency requirements that their services require.

TIA is a non-profit industry leading full-service trade association with more than 80 years of experience helping the industry develop and implement standards. TIA-942 is a widely and globally implemented standard without proprietary requirements. It is a standard developed through an ANSI accredited process by industry experts. TIA is technology and vendor neutral.

TIA develops standards, including ANSI/TIA-942, that are applicable worldwide. TIA’s voluntary and industry-driven standards establish protocols that enable reliable, quality communications networks and services. They are broadly used by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) community.

TIA members and engineering committee participants developed and maintain the TIA-942 with regular updates based on changes in the industry and following the ANSI standards development & maintenance guidelines.

TIA is an ANSI accredited SDO – Standards Development Organization. As an industry association, TIA offers an unbiased certification based on the standard. The standard is available through IHS Global. 

Standards found on the internet without acquisition through IHS or TIA are in violation of TIA copyright and may be inaccurate, a draft not meant for circulation, or out of date.

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The Certification Scheme starts with the requirement for Certification Bodies (CBs) to meet and follow ISO/IEC 17020/17021, a uniform approach accepted and implemented around the world to determine the competence of an assessment organization.

ISO/IEC 17020/17021 specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection/audit and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection/audit activities.

TIA has developed a list of additional qualifications mostly related to a CB’s business structure, processes and performance history to ensure each CB is qualified to perform conformity audits on behalf of TIA

TIA has also developed requirements for the competences of auditors to qualify them to conduct conformity audits based on ANSI/TIA-942. All companies meeting these requirements are encouraged to become a TIA-licensed CB.

A TIA-licensed Certification Body (CB) is a company that has been deemed competent to verify data center conformity with the standard. CBs will be licensed through the evaluation of the organization against recognized standards to ensure their impartiality, competence, and consistency.

The list of TIA-licensed Certification Bodies can be found on the TIA-942 Consultants & Auditors webpage

Yes, there are audits that have been performed to date by many companies in the industry. These audits have varied in the accuracy and conformity to the TIA-942 standard and thus the reason to create the TIA-942 Certification Program to ensure uniform conformity to the TIA-942 standard for owners, operators, and clients of data centers.

Moving forward, only those audits performed by TIA-licensed CB and adhering to TIA-942 certification scheme will be approved by TIA as complying to the detailed standard.   These certifications are listed on the TIA-942 Certified Data Centers webpage.

Yes, there are 3 types of certification:

• The TIA-942 Design Certification is valid for one year, extendable if a site is not operational yet.
• The TIA-942 Constructed Facility Certification is valid for 3 years. By the end of year-1 and year-2, the data center must undergo a surveillance audit. By the end of year-3, the data center must be recertified to maintain its certification.
• The TIA-942 Ready Certification is for pre-manufactured modular data centers and is valid for one year with yearly recertification.

Surveillance and recertification audits are required to ensure that the certification requirements are still met as the data center evolves over time.

This is one of the key ISO requirement for conformance assessment.

Accreditation of a data center helps customers of a data center know that claims made by the data center owner with respect to conformity to the TIA-942 standards have been independently assessed by a qualified organization with competent auditors.

Organizations interested in TIA-942 certification should consult our TIA-942 Consultants & Auditors webpage and select one of the licensed CBs to conduct an audit.

The website is serving as the central repository for TIA-942 related matters.

You can find a list of:

• All Licensed CBs
• All certified data centers including their certification details such as company name, full address of the data center and the issue and expiry date of the certification
• Learn about the certifications and ratings

Please contact DataCenterInfo@tiaonline.org