Data center operations: when risks go beyond infrastructure

For enterprises, a data center outage can have serious financial, reputational and operational consequences.

According to Uptime Institute's Annual Outage Analysis 2026, 57% of respondents to its 2025 survey reported that their most recent major outage cost more than $100,000, while approximately one in five incurred losses exceeding $1 million.

Human factors remain a major source of operational risk. Incidents can arise when established procedures are not followed, processes are incomplete or inaccurate, or mistakes occur during system deployment and daily operations.

These findings underscore an important reality: investing in physical infrastructure is only part of what makes a data center reliable.

Even a well-designed facility remains vulnerable to disruption without standardized procedures, properly trained personnel and consistent operational discipline.

From Silver to Gold: two years of operational improvement

CMC Telecom's Tan Thuan Data Center first received Uptime TCOS Tier III Silver certification in 2024.

Following a reassessment in 2026, the facility was upgraded to Gold, the highest rating under Uptime Institute's Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability (TCOS) framework.

The achievement makes Tan Thuan the first and only data center in Vietnam to hold this certification level and places it among just 66 data centers worldwide reported to have achieved TCOS Gold status.

To meet Uptime Institute's requirements, CMC Telecom concentrated its improvement efforts on two key areas: operational processes and technical capabilities.

The first involved a comprehensive review of existing operating procedures.

The company reassessed its processes, introduced new procedures where necessary and refined operational steps to identify potential risks and reduce the likelihood of disruptions.

The assessment extended well beyond written documentation.

Uptime Institute's evaluation also examined the content and frequency of staff training, conducted interviews with employees and assessed how consistently established procedures were followed in real operating conditions.

The second priority was strengthening the capabilities of CMC Telecom's technical team.

The company developed training programs aligned with Uptime Institute's requirements, covering practical scenarios ranging from shift monitoring and scheduled maintenance to emergency response.

The improvement process lasted approximately two years, allowing CMC Telecom to address shortcomings identified in its previous assessment and further strengthen its operational management system.

Certification is not the finish line

Commenting on the achievement, Le Minh Hieu, Director of CMC Telecom's Data Center Division, said the Gold certification provided important recognition of the company's operational capabilities.

"For CMC Telecom, TCOS Gold is an important validation of our ability to manage and operate data centers in line with international standards," he said.

“Our customers entrust us with infrastructure that supports business-critical operations. They need more than a well-designed facility. They also need strong risk control, consistent operations and a technical team that can respond effectively when issues arise. TCOS helps turn technical standards into disciplined management practices, giving customers greater confidence in the infrastructure supporting their businesses," Hieu added.

Pham Huy Hoang, Deputy Director of CMC Telecom's Data Center Division, who worked closely with the technical team throughout the assessment, emphasized that maintaining these standards would be just as important as achieving the certification itself.

"Uptime TCOS Gold recognizes the work our teams have done to standardize processes, strengthen execution and maintain consistency in day-to-day operations,” Hoang said. “Gold is an important milestone, but it is not the end point. The next challenge is to maintain that discipline every day and make these standards part of how every shift, engineer and process operates."

A stronger foundation for enterprise-critical systems

With Tan Thuan Data Center achieving Uptime TCOS Tier III Gold, CMC Telecom has become the first data center operator in Vietnam to receive this level of operational sustainability recognition from Uptime Institute.

The milestone also reflects the growing maturity of Vietnam's data center industry as operators increasingly align their facilities and management practices with international standards.

For CMC Telecom, the achievement supports its Comprehensive Service Provider strategy, which brings together Data Center, Connectivity, Cloud Services, Cyber Security and Managed Services within a unified digital ecosystem.

The strategy emphasizes consistent governance and operational control across interconnected digital services.

As banks, financial institutions and large enterprises accelerate digital transformation and adopt artificial intelligence, their data center requirements are becoming more demanding.

Capacity and physical infrastructure design remain important, but enterprises increasingly need facilities capable of maintaining service continuity, controlling operational risks and supporting critical workloads at scale.

This makes operational capability a growing consideration when businesses choose digital infrastructure partners.

Physical redundancy is essential, but resilience also depends on how reliably people and processes perform during both routine operations and unexpected incidents.

For CMC Telecom, Uptime TCOS Tier III Gold therefore represents more than another industry certification.

It reflects a commitment to maintaining the operational discipline, technical expertise and risk controls needed to support increasingly critical enterprise systems.