Investing in data center services not only ensures secure and stable operations for businesses but also serves as a foundational pillar for scaling up and enhancing competitiveness. However, many companies—especially small and medium-sized enterprises—still grapple with a critical question: **How much investment is enough?**
The Cost: There is no single absolute number—but there are practical benchmarks.
The cost of utilizing data center services depends on several factors, including system scale, security requirements, rental duration, data processing volume, and scalability needs. However, some commonly referenced cost benchmarks can be outlined as follows:
Small businesses or startups: use 1–2 rack units (U), rent server space (colocation) in a Tier III standard data center in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi for about 3–5 million VND/month for each server, including electricity, bandwidth and basic support.
Medium-sized Enterprise: system of 5–10 physical servers, the cost of renting space and integrated management services can range from 30–70 million VND/month. With this package, businesses can rent firewalls, physical security, 24/7 monitoring and backup power systems.
Large enterprises or financial, e-commerce, logistics organizations: may need to rent a separate rack (42U), or multiple racks, or even a separate area (cage), with costs ranging from 100 million to over 500 million VND/month depending on security requirements, legal compliance (for example, data storage requirements in Vietnam according to Decree 53/2022/ND-CP), international bandwidth, or integration with hybrid cloud.
Data Center as a Service (DCaaS): is an increasingly popular model, allowing businesses to use virtual servers, storage and security on demand, charging according to usage (pay-as-you-go). Basic packages are usually only from 2-10 million VND/month, suitable for businesses without specialized IT teams.
What is “just enough” investment?
“Just enough” does not mean spending as little as possible, but rather investing appropriately to protect core values and create room for growth. A business may save a few million VND per month by placing a server in the office, but it faces the risk of data loss, downtime, and immeasurable damage when an incident occurs. On the contrary, the cost of renting a reputable data center can be an investment that helps avoid the risk of losing customers, violating security laws, or slowing down the digital transformation process.
In fact, many businesses have suffered hundreds of millions of dong in losses just because of a power outage for a few hours, or a denial of service (DDoS) attack due to a system lacking professional protection. When put on the scale, the cost of investing in a data center is sometimes only equivalent to 1-2% of monthly revenue, but it brings outstanding stability and resilience.
Therefore, investing in data center storage services should not only be considered a technical expense, but also a smart and sustainable operational strategy. How much is enough? The answer lies in what the business is willing to protect: its system, data, reputation or digital future. With a reasonable investment of several million to several hundred million VND/month, businesses can completely find a flexible solution suitable for their scale and growth goals.