Gain new levels of insight with DCIM
Once upon a time not so long ago having the right data center management tools and team was enough for any data center. Today it’s a different story. Increased automation and rapid growth in compute and storage is changing data center management. Add to that the increasing number of organisations storing applications and data through leased or co-lo facilities, SaaS and managed services, and it’s no surprise many companies are recognizing the value of data center infrastructure management (DCIM).
Right DCIM tools for the job
DCIM tools can help you see the things you need to see in order to monitor temperature, cooling systems, and other physical components such as power supplies and UPS. Other DCIM tools such as visualization can also help you gain greater insight and control over complex data center environments by enabling you to model racks and floors as per the exact physical dimensions and view the 3D data center from an iPad or mobile device.
Incorporating such tools into your DCIM strategy makes it easy to extract accurate, meaningful information about the data center’s assets, resource usage and operational status and helps managers make better informed decisions. Complementing other tools such as server monitoring, intelligent alerting, reporting and asset life cycle management, DCIM neatly blends monitoring of the IP network with the physical environment, helping businesses make better use of resources and save time, boost productivity and reduce costs.
Right vendor for the job
Making sure your DCIM software vendor can deliver a rich enough set of capabilities for your needs is an important part of implementing an effective DCIM strategy. You may want to find out what impact the technology you’re considering is having at similar organisations, the hidden costs, if any, and how easy it is to deploy and intuitive to navigate. Many major hurdles in areas such as software deployment and IT systems can be overcome simply by teaming up with the right people.
Fundamentally however the value of DCIM lies in its ability to help you gain new levels of insight by integrating it with your existing data center to bring richer analytics across your data center sites. But it’s worth remembering that if the architecture doesn’t support the scale of the environment, then the benefits of a data center infrastructure strategy will be lost.