Beyond.pl data center with EN 50600 certification

Beyond.pl Data Center 2 has gained Class 4 EN 50600 certification, confirming compliance with the highest level of the European standard. This means the facility provides customers with the highest levels of physical security, service continuity, and energy efficiency. This is particularly important for organizations where uninterrupted availability to IT services and business continuity are priorities. Data Center 2 is currently the only data center in the EU with the highest level of security confirmed by two independent bodies: the ANSI/TIA-942 Rated 4 certification and the EN 50600 Class 4 standard.

EN 50600 is an official standard of the European community, which defines standards for key areas related to a data center’s architecture, operation, and maintenance. The standard places particular emphasis on ensuring adequate levels of security, infrastructure availability, and energy efficiency. The European Commission adopted the standard which was subsequently ratified by EU member states, including the Polish Committee for Standardization in 2014. EN 50600 certification is granted for two years, with recurring comprehensive audits required for its renewal.

First data center in Europe with two prestigious certifications

Certification in the highest, 4 Class was obtained by Beyond.pl Data Center 2. This is the same facility, which in 2016 was the first data center in the European Union to meet the criteria for international Rated 4 ANSI/TIA-942 certification. At that time, the facility successfully completed the certification process in all audited areas, i.e. architecture, mechanics, power supply, and telecommunications. The Rated 4 level means that the potential yearly downtime of data center services is limited to a maximum of 26 minutes, when comparing to Rated 3 facilities who have an exposure to unavailability in the amount of 96 minutes per year. Beyond.pl has now successfully completed an audit of all its data halls in Data Center 2, confirming their compliance with the EN 50600 standard at the highest Class 4 level, the most important certificate classifying data centers on the old continent. Since the launch of the facility in Poznan (strategically located halfway between Warsaw and Berlin) in 2016, it has delivered 100% uptime to its customers.

Thorough audit

The awarding of the Class 4 EN 50600 standard to Beyond.pl Data Center 2 was preceded by a detailed audit conducted by an independent certification body. Among other things, the auditors conducted a thorough review of the redundancy of power, cooling, and communications systems r. The data center’s resistance to external factors such as fires and flooding was also analyzed. The building’s structural performance was also measured, as well as energy efficiency. Overall, each of these areas received the highest possible rating.

– From the point of view of data center customers, an independent certification is the only way to independently assess and objectively confirm the quality of a facility, both in terms of its security and continuity of service delivery and energy efficiency. Beyond.pl Data Center 2’s possession of two independent international certificates at the highest level indicates that we are ready to serve the most demanding enterprises, which, due to the profile of their business or industry, must have 100% confidence in the procedures applied by the provider and a guarantee of service continuity. This set of competencies places us at the forefront of European data centers, points out Wojciech Stramski, Beyond.pl CEO.

Recommendations from regulators

EN 50600 certification is of particular importance for companies in regulated industries, including finance, insurance, and healthcare. The Office of the Financial Supervisory Commission of Poland recommends that data centers and cloud providers involved in maintaining the IT infrastructure of customers in regulated industries meet the requirements of the standard EN 50600 at minimum at a level of Class 3. As of February 2020, according to the Polish Ministry of Digitization’s regulation “National Cyber Security Standards,” Level 3 is also the lowest acceptable level for providers processing data for the public administration and the private sector.

Long list of certifications

EN 50600 Class 4 and ANSI/TIA-942 Rated 4 are not the only certifications confirming the high quality of Beyond.pl’s services. Both of the Polish operator’s data centers have also successfully passed the ISO 27001 audit, which means that the company has an advanced information security management system. Beyond.pl also meets the mandatory requirements for entities storing, transmitting, and processing payment card data, which has been confirmed by the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) certification, and meets SOC 2 Type 1 and 2 procedures, which confirm compliance with standards for information security, integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of the organization’s data and customers.

Beyond.pl has also recently completed ISO 14001 environmental certification, which confirms the compliance of the company’s environmental policy with international standards. The audit verified the processes in place to manage energy, water, and waste, the qualifications and duties of employees responsible for environmental management, the scope of monitoring environmental parameters and identification of non-compliance and implementation of corrective actions. Beyond.pl stands out firmly in the Polish and European data center and cloud market  in the delivery of sustainable solutions. It powers its data centers with 100% green energy, confirmed by certificates of origin, and Data Center 2 is among the top energy-efficient facilities in the region with a PUE of 1.2. The company actively participates in projects supporting the sustainable development of the data center industry. It is a member of industry initiatives supporting green transformation, i.e. the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact, the European Green Digital Coalition and the VMware Zero Carbon Committed Program. In 2022, it was also the first Polish IT company to officially announce its proactive support in addressing all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Beyond.pl, as a data center operator, is carrier-neutral – working with key Tier 1 operators and regional and local providers. Beyond.pl’s data centers provide access to key European traffic exchange points like DE-CIX in Frankfurt, BCIX in Berlin, Peering.cz in Prague and EPIX from Poland, as well as 360+ cloud and SaaS platforms and 760+ data centers worldwide via Megaport’s network services. Customers opting for Beyond.pl’s services have access to a comprehensive infrastructure maintenance offering from a single provider that includes colocation, connectivity, private, hybrid and public clouds, supported by a wide range of Managed Services provided by Beyond.pl’s more than 80 high-level technical experts. Beyond.pl currently serves approximately 500 Polish and international companies.

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• Beyond.pl data center with EN 50600 certification