Uptime Institute, an industry organization that specializes in data center assessment and certification, has introduced a new service aimed at businesses that use a combination of in-house data centers, colocation and public cloud.

The Hybrid Resiliency Assessment looks at each component of the hybrid IT architecture, evaluating its suitability for specific types of business services. It also delivers insights on the overall level of resiliency and risk associated with those services.

Do it right

Hybrid infrastructure
– Thinkstock / Artis777

Uptime Institute is an American organization owned by the 451 Group that develops standards and benchmarks for design, construction and operation of data centers. It is responsible for the popular Tier certification scheme, which evaluates fault-tolerance of data centers and is administered by a network of critical infrastructure experts. Over the past 20 years, the Institute has awarded more than 1,000 Tier certifications in over 80 countries.

Its latest assessment was developed for customers who mix their own infrastructure and public cloud resources. This approach is emerging as the standard way of doing IT: it promises lower costs when compared to ‘monolithic’ legacy infrastructure, but introduces new challenges in monitoring, management and reliability.

Hybrid Resiliency Assessment evaluates hybrid infrastructure and highlights the issues across five categories, taking into account everything from business priorities to network performance. Clients receive an in-depth report that outlines the expected performance of specific business services and lists vulnerabilities, along with practical recommendations for improvement.

“CIOs are chartered to deliver the business services needed regardless of the technical platform choices their teams have made,” said Chris Brown, CTO at Uptime Institute.

“Delivering business services that span hybrid infrastructures without the same level of governance and risk assessment seen in traditional infrastructure creates a series of hidden vulnerabilities and puts them at a risk. Our new Hybrid Resiliency Assessment service provides a clear view of the expected performance of various business services over a wide range of normal operating conditions – regardless of the underlying systems involved.”