Global Skills X-change Corporation (GSX) has announced the launch of the Certified Mission Critical Operator (CMCO) program. Mission critical operators keep data center facilities, technology, and processes running for organizations that require continuous data access. Seeing the rapid increase in mission critical data centers, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration funded a program to address the growing need for qualified operators. An industry-wide process, including input from major data centers users such as AT&T and Duke Energy, was executed to develop a list of the knowledge areas every Mission Critical Operator must master to be effective, including maintenance, reporting, and incidence response. The resulting knowledge “blueprint” is the foundation upon which the CMCO program was built. The certification exam is available at Pearson VUE testing centers.

David Wilcox, President and CEO of GSX stated, “The CMCO program is a valuable tool for the data center industry. An outage in a mission critical data center would have devastating consequences on the business operations of organizations housing data there. To minimize these risks, the CMCO program was developed by data center experts to address the existing skills gap and ensure certified operators meet required standards. The CMCO designation also provides hiring managers knowledge that successful candidates are able to perform foundational operational tasks within a mission critical environment.”