Ministry of Science and ICT to Establish IDC Power and Fire Protection Standards for Disasters

Emergency Inspection Meeting Held for Domestic Data Center Operators

Park Yoon-kyu, 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] The Ministry of Science and ICT will establish standards to ensure that data centers operate normally even in disaster situations, following the Kakao service outage caused by the fire at the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center (IDC).

On the 20th, Park Yoon-kyu, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, held an "Emergency Inspection Meeting for Domestic Data Center Operators" in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, stating, "This incident painfully reminded us that the stable management of data centers is crucial for the smooth functioning of our citizens' daily lives, economy, and society," and added, "The government aims to use this opportunity to strengthen the safety and resilience of data centers in the era of digital transformation and to establish a new order."

Earlier, on the 15th, a fire broke out at the SK C&C Pangyo Data Center, causing disruptions in most Kakao services, including KakaoTalk. The Ministry of Science and ICT has been supporting the recovery of Kakao services through a disaster response headquarters led by the minister. As most services have been restored, discussions on securing data center stability will begin from today.

Vice Minister Park said, "The Ministry of Science and ICT, together with related agencies such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Korea Communications Commission, and fire authorities, formed a disaster response headquarters directly led by the minister to support recovery, notify users, and analyze causes," adding, "Now that most services have been normalized, we will start full-scale discussions from this morning to prepare improvement measures for the future."

The meeting included participants from KT Cloud, LG Uplus, SK Broadband, LG CNS, Samsung SDS, Lotte Data Communication, Hana Financial TI, the Data Center Association, and the Korea Information and Communication Industry Research Institute, who shared plans to secure data center stability.

The government plans to first establish protection standards to ensure that data centers can operate normally even in the event of disasters such as fires.

Vice Minister Park stated, "We will specify protection standards for power supply, firefighting, and other areas to ensure that data centers can operate without interruption even in disaster situations, and enable regular inspections and preparedness," adding, "Since many citizens experienced great inconvenience and damage due to the suspension of major digital services, the government is taking this situation very seriously."

He continued, "Through this, we will make the market safer and more reliable, and by going through sufficient communication with the industry, we will prepare practical and necessary institutional improvement measures," emphasizing, "The government is determined to turn this accident into a turning point and to create a new digital order."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.