Why is Data Center Infrastructure Management Necessary?

According to Gartner, data center infrastructure management (DCIM) consists of tools and applications that manage, measure or monitor data center use, as well as the energy consumption of all hardware, facilities infrastructure components — like power distribution units — and computer room ACs (CRACs). If you’re looking to optimize your current data center IT infrastructure or establish a new one, you should first have a good understanding of why data center infrastructure management is necessary.

What Is Data Center Infrastructure Management?

Businesses looking to improve their technologies’ operational and energy efficiency can implement DCIM to see various improvements. DCIM consists of multiple tools that enhance operations by measuring, monitoring and controlling the use of all IT equipment. Monitored equipment includes data storage solutions, servers, network switches and other infrastructure components like power distribution and computer room air conditioning. Collecting data from these sources can reveal numerous ways to improve a business’s operations.

Beyond collecting data, DCIM software helps businesses plan for the future. DCIM software replaces Excel and other older data-aggregation platforms and makes the collected information readily accessible through an easy-to-use digital interface. With access to the latest DCIM tools, IT professionals can implement and track plans to improve equipment life span, energy efficiency and more.

DataSpan offers several products and services that help businesses mitigate risks, develop plans and manage their data centers. Our affordable DCIM products include various convenient features, like performance usage effectiveness (PUE) measurement, multi-channel advance alert systems, electrical mapping, capacity modeling, IP address discovery, offline stencil management and more. You’ll benefit from online training, accurate data collection, an intuitive executive dashboard interface and other perks that maximize your return on investment.

Why Do I Need DCIM?

For all businesses, it’s essential to use resources as efficiently as possible. In this endeavor, DCIM is critical because it allows you to:

• Track use of important resources: Robust DCIM provides key data about all aspects of a data center’s operations — including power usage, environmental information and cooling data. In addition to delivering an accurate overview of the current use of resources, this data can also be analyzed and used predictively to assess what equipment needs to be purchased and what power usage and cooling demands need to be considered for future growth.
• Increase energy efficiency: Data centers use significant amounts of energy. DCIM allows you to track energy usage and pinpoint energy going to non-essential processes or systems that consume significant power so you can adapt your infrastructure accordingly. Additionally, you can identify times when substantial energy is used and take appropriate measures. The average power usage effectiveness (PUE) of a typical data center is 2.5, and the Uptime Institute approximates most facilities could achieve 1.6 PUE by implementing DCIM, best practices and the most efficient equipment.
• Create and implement disaster prevention measures: Factors such as higher-than-recommended temperatures can lead to system failures, while inefficient power usage can impair your IT system’s functioning. Using data captured by your DCIM, you can plan for problems like these and drastically reduce the chances of any downtime.
• Improve workflow management: A quality DCIM system can optimize workflows by consolidating servers, balancing workloads and managing equipment’s power usage.
• Avoid downtime: The Uptime Institute’s eighth annual data center survey presented results of more than 80% of all respondents considering their outages preventable. Leading causes of downtime consisted of power outages, human error, configuration errors, third-party provider outages and network failure.
• Minimize data center costs: With improved energy efficiency and better workflow management, you can greatly reduce energy costs and expenses associated with hardware acquisition and maintenance.

In short, when well thought out and implemented, DCIM provides your IT team and facilities manager with a comprehensive overview of your data center’s functioning and performance so that floor space, energy and hardware can be optimized.

The Importance of DCIM Monitoring

Whether your business has its own data center or you manage a large data center that offers colocation services, DCIM monitoring is critical. Careful and continuous monitoring allows your IT team to manage your data center infrastructure management system proactively. As a result, you can identify and address any issues before they become real problems that can negatively impact the data center’s functioning and uptime. If an issue does become a large challenge, your IT team can implement the disaster prevention measures it previously created.

Get Effective Data Center Infrastructure Management With DataSpan

At DataSpan, we’re proud to count more than half of the Fortune 1000 among our pleased clients. With knowledgeable consultants who are always up to date on the latest in DCIM developments and solutions, we can provide the vendor-neurtral support you need to select and implement the data center infrastructure management system that’s right for your company. For more information, contact us today or find a representative in your area.