Plain words
Standards and certifications explained
What 12 standards and certifications mean, who issues them, and what they do not tell you.
Providers and operators often quote a Tier, a certificate or a benchmark. Each entry below says what the scheme covers and who issues it, taken from the publisher's own page, and whether it certifies a built site, an organisation, a design, a product or nothing at all. The list is alphabetical and is not a ranking: these schemes measure different things and none is better than another.
The What it does not tell you lists are our reading of what each scheme leaves out by definition. They are not claims about any provider. When someone quotes one of these, ask for the certificate or report, its scope, its date and which building or service it covers. See also the glossary entry on tier levels and PUE.
Jump to: ANSI/TIA-942 · ASHRAE TC 9.9 guidance · EN 50600 series · EU Energy Efficiency Directive: data centre reporting and rating scheme · ISO/IEC 27001 · MLPerf benchmarks · Open Compute Project (OCP) · PUE: ISO/IEC 30134-2 and The Green Grid · SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls) · UALink · Ultra Ethernet (UEC specification) · Uptime Institute Tier Classification and Tier Certification
ANSI/TIA-942
Data centre infrastructure standard with licensed certification. Published by Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA).
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | TIA says the standard addresses the telecommunications infrastructure, power infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, architecture, fire protection, security and monitoring of data centres. |
| Who issues it | Certification bodies licensed by TIA, which TIA says must meet ISO/IEC 17020 or 17021 and further TIA requirements. TIA develops the standard and runs the scheme but does not audit sites itself. |
| What it certifies | a design; a built site. TIA says its programme offers Design, Constructed Facility and Ready (for modular data centres) certifications, each with four rating levels. Design certification is valid for one year, extendable; Constructed Facility certification for three years with surveillance audits. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- TIA-942 rating levels are not Uptime Tiers, even where the numbers look alike.
- A design certificate is not a constructed facility certificate, and certificates expire; check the type and date.
- It does not tell you capacity available to buy, or anything about a provider's software security.
Read Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)'s primary page
Primary. Read on the TIA page linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
ASHRAE TC 9.9 guidance
Technical committee guidance on cooling and environmental conditions. Published by ASHRAE.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | ASHRAE says TC 9.9 is concerned with all aspects of mission critical facilities, data centres, technology spaces and electronic equipment and systems. Its Datacom Encyclopedia (which grew out of the printed Datacom Series in 2024) collects knowledge on facility design, IT equipment design, environmental guidelines, cooling technologies and energy efficiency. |
| Who issues it | ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.9. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. The ASHRAE pages we read describe guidance and publications, with no certification of facilities. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- An operator saying it runs "within ASHRAE guidelines" is a statement about environmental conditions, not a certificate, and you should ask which guideline class and edition.
- It does not tell you the site's resilience, security or energy efficiency outcome.
- It does not say whether a hall can take high density or liquid cooled racks; ask the operator directly.
Also read: ASHRAE: Datacom series and Encyclopedia
Primary. Read on the ASHRAE pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
EN 50600 series
European standard series for data centre facilities. Published by CENELEC; reviewed national catalogue source: DIN Media.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | DIN Media's catalogue lists DIN EN 50600-1:2019-08, the German version of EN 50600-1:2019, as current and identifies it as replacing the 2013-05 national edition. This check concerns only the German Part 1 catalogue identity, status and publication month. It does not establish a single current edition for every part or national adoption of the EN 50600 series. |
| Who issues it | CENELEC publishes the EN series; the cited evidence is a German national adoption catalogue record from DIN Media. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. A standards catalogue record does not certify a particular site, design or product. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- Catalogue status and publication metadata do not establish the full normative requirements of a standard.
- The cited catalogue does not establish conformity or an assessed class for a particular facility.
- It does not establish current site capacity or compute availability.
Read CENELEC; reviewed national catalogue source: DIN Media's primary page
Primary, bounded. Public DIN Media catalogue metadata checked on 31 October 2026 and independently reviewed for this exact minimal use. No paywalled standard, normative clauses or catalogue abstract are reproduced. This refinement adds no new source check. Checked on 31 October 2026.
Inspect this national catalogue check and its limits
German Part 1 catalogue identifier, current label, month-precision national publication metadata and replacement relationship only. CENELEC's retained series identity is not newly verified by this DIN-only check.
- Source publisher
- DIN Media
- National publication label
- 2019-08 (month precision; no day inferred)
- Webpage publication and update
- Not recorded
- Event date
- Not recorded
- Independent source review
- 2026-10-31T23:22:34Z
- Wording-mapping review
- 2026-10-31T23:31:29Z; no new source read
- Origin retrieval
- Not recorded
- Immutable source version
- Not recorded
Copyright retained. Product/publication processing and reproduction restrictions remain. No open or recurring grant; only exact minimal public basic-fact/link account assessed.
No open content licence is recorded. This is catalogue metadata, not normative standard text or a site-conformity assessment.
Scoped national-catalogue JSON · CSV with source conditions. A page build does not refresh this evidence check.
EU Energy Efficiency Directive: data centre reporting and rating scheme
Legal reporting obligation and first phase of an EU rating scheme. Published by European Commission.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | The Commission says the directive brought in mandatory public reporting requirements for data centres with a power demand above 500 kW, creating an EU wide evidence base for the sector, with Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 setting harmonised reporting elements and the first phase of a Union rating scheme. The Commission has also announced work towards minimum performance standards. |
| Who issues it | Data centre operators report; the Commission runs the scheme. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. A legal duty to report, not a voluntary certificate. The Commission refers to the first phase of a Union rating scheme set by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- Reporting is a duty, not a mark of good performance. A site that reports is not thereby efficient.
- It applies in the EU and above the threshold; a smaller site or one outside the EU may report nothing under it.
- It does not tell you whether capacity is available or who the tenants are.
Read European Commission's primary page
Also read: EUR-Lex: Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364
Primary. Read on the European Commission page linked. The EUR-Lex text did not load for us, so we quote nothing from it. Checked on 3 October 2026.
ISO/IEC 27001
Management system standard, certified by third parties. Published by ISO and IEC.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | Requirements for information security management systems. The current edition listed by ISO is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (edition 3, October 2022). |
| Who issues it | External certification bodies. ISO says accreditation provides independent confirmation of a certification body's competence, but that accreditation is not compulsory and non accreditation does not necessarily mean a body is not reputable. |
| What it certifies | an organisation (within a stated scope). An organisation (or a defined scope within it) can choose to be certified against the standard by a conformity assessment body. ISO states that it does not perform certification or issue certificates. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A certificate covers a stated scope. A provider's certificate may cover one office, one product or one region, not the data centre you will use; ask for the scope statement.
- It certifies a management system, not that a breach cannot happen or that any specific control is strong.
- It says nothing about power, cooling, resilience Tier or energy efficiency.
- Ask which certification body issued the certificate and whether it is accredited; accreditation is the independent check on that body's competence.
Read ISO and IEC's primary page
Also read: ISO: Certification
Primary. Read on the ISO pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
MLPerf benchmarks
Benchmark suites with published results. Published by MLCommons.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | MLCommons says MLPerf aims to deliver a representative benchmark suite that fairly evaluates AI and ML system performance, with suites for training (including HPC), inference (datacentre, edge, mobile, tiny and endpoints), automotive, storage and client. In MLPerf Inference: Datacenter, the closed division requires the same model as the reference implementation, while the open division allows different models or retraining. Results are labelled available, preview or research and internal. |
| Who issues it | Submitters run the benchmarks under MLCommons rules; MLCommons publishes results and notes they are sometimes modified or invalidated. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. A benchmark result for a submitted system, not a certificate of a site or company. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A result describes the system submitted, not every instance a provider rents out.
- MLCommons says power results are valid only for the accompanying benchmark, and that other power figures such as TDP are not measured or validated by it.
- Open division results are not like for like with closed division results.
- It does not tell you price, availability or contract terms.
Also read: MLCommons: MLPerf Inference Datacenter
Primary. Read on the MLCommons pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
Open Compute Project (OCP)
Open hardware specifications with product recognition. Published by Open Compute Project Foundation.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | OCP describes itself as a collaborative community focused on redesigning hardware technology to support growing demands on compute infrastructure, by openly sharing ideas, specifications and other intellectual property. |
| Who issues it | The Open Compute Project Foundation. |
| What it certifies | a product. OCP recognises products, for example as OCP Accepted, which OCP says applies when a product complies with an approved OCP specification or other contribution but no design files have been contributed. OCP also runs an OCP Ready programme for facilities; we could not fetch its page, so we say nothing about how it works. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- An OCP specification is not a certificate that a given deployment or site is reliable or secure.
- Product recognition is about a product, not about the provider running it.
- It does not tell you capacity, location or availability.
Read Open Compute Project Foundation's primary page
Also read: OCP: product recognition
Primary. Read on the OCP pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
PUE: ISO/IEC 30134-2 and The Green Grid
Metric definition and measurement method. Published by ISO and IEC; The Green Grid.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | ISO/IEC 30134-2:2026 (edition 2, January 2026) sets out how to measure, calculate and report power usage effectiveness, the ratio of total facility energy to IT equipment energy, with guidance for mixed use buildings, unmeasured energy and on site generation. It replaced the 2016 edition, which ISO lists as withdrawn. The Green Grid publishes its own guidance on PUE and notes that matters such as equipment availability and data centre productivity need different metrics. |
| Who issues it | Self reported by operators using the method; the standard itself issues nothing. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. A metric with a measurement and reporting method, not a certificate. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- PUE says nothing about the carbon intensity of the electricity or about water use.
- A design PUE is not a measured PUE, and a single good month is not an annual figure; ask for the period and the measurement category.
- It does not measure how much useful computing is done per unit of energy.
- Two PUE figures are only comparable if measured the same way over the same kind of period.
Read ISO and IEC; The Green Grid's primary page
Also read: ISO/IEC 30134-2:2016 (withdrawn); The Green Grid: PUE, a comprehensive examination of the metric
Primary. Read on the ISO and The Green Grid pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls)
Assurance report by an independent CPA, not a certificate. Published by AICPA and CIMA.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | Examination of controls at a service organisation relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy. The AICPA sets the professional standards for SOC engagements. |
| Who issues it | Licensed CPAs perform the examination and issue the report. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. The AICPA describes SOC as a suite of service offerings CPAs may provide on controls at a service organisation, resulting in assurance reports. The publisher's page calls the output a report, not a certificate. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A SOC 2 is a report, not a pass mark. The useful content is in the report itself, including any exceptions the auditor found; ask for it under the provider's usual terms.
- The report covers the system and period described in it. It may not include the data centre, region or service you plan to use.
- It does not tell you the facility's power, cooling or resilience design.
- "SOC 2 compliant" with no report behind it tells you little.
Read AICPA and CIMA's primary page
Primary. Read on the AICPA and CIMA page linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
UALink
Open accelerator interconnect specification. Published by UALink Consortium.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | The consortium describes UALink as an open industry interconnect standard for accelerator to accelerator communication in AI systems. Its site refers to the UALink 200G 1.0 Specification and to four further specifications published in April 2026, covering in network compute chiplets, manageability and 200G performance. |
| Who issues it | The UALink Consortium publishes the specifications. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. The page we read describes specifications and gave no detail of a compliance or certification programme. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A published specification does not mean shipping products or cloud instances use it; check the provider's own instance pages.
- It does not tell you cluster size or performance.
Read UALink Consortium's primary page
Primary. Read on the UALink Consortium site. Checked on 3 October 2026.
Ultra Ethernet (UEC specification)
Open networking specification. Published by Ultra Ethernet Consortium.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | The consortium says it is delivering an Ethernet based, open, interoperable, high performance, full communications stack architecture for AI and HPC networking at scale. Its site lists specification version 1.0.3, released in August 2026. It is a Joint Development Foundation project affiliated with the Linux Foundation. |
| Who issues it | The Ultra Ethernet Consortium publishes the specification. |
| What it certifies | nothing: it is not a certificate. The consortium lists a compliance programme section and says it may pursue compliance and interoperability programmes. We read no detail of a certification, so we treat it as a specification. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A product "supporting Ultra Ethernet" may implement only part of the specification; ask which version and which features.
- It does not tell you how a provider's cluster network performs in practice.
Read Ultra Ethernet Consortium's primary page
Primary. Read on the Ultra Ethernet Consortium site. Checked on 3 October 2026.
Uptime Institute Tier Classification and Tier Certification
Facility infrastructure classification with paid certification. Published by Uptime Institute.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it covers, as the publisher states | The publisher says its Tier definitions explain the infrastructure required for data centre operations, in four levels: Tier I, Tier II, Tier III and Tier IV. |
| Who issues it | Uptime Institute, which says it is the only licensed firm that can provide these certifications. |
| What it certifies | a design; a built site. Separate certifications for design documents (TCDD), the constructed facility (TCCF) and operational sustainability (TCOS). The publisher says the constructed facility certification checks that a facility has been built as designed. A design certification alone is not a certification of the built site. |
What it does not tell you Our reading, definitional
- A Tier describes infrastructure topology. It does not tell you how much power, cooling or space is free to buy at a site.
- A design certificate does not show the building was built that way; look for the constructed facility certificate.
- It says nothing about cyber security, data protection or the operator's finances.
- "Tier III design" in marketing copy is not the same as an Uptime certificate; ask which certificate, which phase and for which building.
Read Uptime Institute's primary page
Also read: Uptime Institute: Tier Certification phases
Primary. Read on the Uptime Institute pages linked. Checked on 3 October 2026.
Retained register baseline: Checked on 3 October 2026 and due for review by 3 April 2027. The DIN entry shows its separate 31 October 2026 catalogue-only check and source limits; this does not renew any other entry. This is general information, not advice. Something wrong? Tell us.