Why DCOS certification matters for business reliability
Knowledge is power, and power means knowing the best place to ensure your digital sovereignty and that starts with a modern data centre.
Ilkari’s flagship facility in the Tocancipá Free Trade Zone near Bogotá, Colombia, achieved a Data Centre Operating System (DCOS) Maturity Level 3 one month after its launch in September 2024. We are also the first data centre in North and South America and one of 25 data centres globally to achieve this milestone.
The five maturity levels of DCOS for data centres
DCOS has five levels – one through five moving from initial, repeatable, defined, managed and optimised.
According to Joseba Calvo, Managing Partner of EPI Americas, business continuity and reliability are paramount for data centres as they have a direct impact on any organisation’s business.
“Risk mitigation is the way to achieve true reliability and business continuity. It is not an option to run by luck,” said Calvo. “That is why defined operations are critical to achieving trust.”
“Having a certification by an accredited independent third-party guarantees that the data centre has been audited according to international standards and is a guarantee of risk mitigation,” added Calvo. “Instead of having problems that can be very costly, time-consuming, and have a huge business impact, they become situations that are resolved with reduced cost, quickly, and with minimum business impact.
Calvo adds that this means reliability, trust, and commitment to quality for the customer.
DCOS- 1 and DCOS- 2
While DCOS Levels 1 and 2 are largely left to luck, in DCOS, Maturity Level 2 means the organisation operating the data centre relies heavily on people rather than processes, leading, in general, to a relatively higher risk of errors.
Process execution has a regular pattern, which is not determined by process description but by the nature of operations in which staff behave and operate in a reasonably similar fashion. There is limited documentation available, which is not under complete document management control but might use versioning. Training is informal and on demand rather than well-planned. Monitoring is not available or is limited.
A critical distinction between DCOS-1 and DCOS-2 is that there is some level of informal, non-written process with a higher degree of consistency in its execution.
DCOS-3
In 2025, there are only 25 global data centres with the DCOS Maturity Level 3. In level 3, processes are defined and documented at the high level. Procedures might not be described in detail, leading to interpretation of the individual therefore some deviations might occur during the execution of these processes.
Documents are available and have some level of document management control. Training is more formal but might be generic for all. Monitoring is used in its basic form to support some of the processes.
DCOS-4
Processes are monitored and measured for compliance and conformity, and action is taken to improve the process.
DCOS- 5
Processes should be closely aligned with the business strategy, under full management control, and fully integrated.
If you are ready to ensure your enterprise has data sovereignty at the highest levels, reach out to Juan Aguirre, Chief Commercial Officer at Ilkari, or Viviana Castro, Data Centre Sales & Channel Manager, Ilkari in Colombia, to get started.
