It’s a growing trend in data centers worldwide: the use of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software to make operations more efficient. And it’s not just happening in large enterprises. Smaller size organizations are also employing DCIM to alleviate their data center operators’ day-to-day headaches.
So what are the advantages?
- Greater visibility into the physical infrastructure— DCIM software integrates the monitoring of the entire IT infrastructure into a centralized system. Administrators know at a glance how their data center environment is configured, what resources are assigned to which physical or virtual services and how the resources are being utilized. This is a lot more efficient than trying to figure it all out manually and recording it on spreadsheets.
- Better decision-making and resource management— With all of this information at their fingertips, data center managers can make sure the right applications are on the right hardware and each application is optimally using the resources assigned to it. They also have a better handle on managing resources to keep pace with user demands and increasing workloads. DCIM helps them answer such critical questions as “Do we have enough space, power, cooling and network connectivity to meet our needs for the next month, for the next year and the next 5 years?”
- Improved uptime—DCIM software continually monitors critical facilities’ infrastructure. It polls equipment, reports on data and monitors trends and threshold violations. This makes it easier to identify weaknesses that could lead to a system failure. With built-in alerts, data center administrators can troubleshoot proactively—and deal with potential environmental, network and power-related system failures before they become problems.
- Greater energy efficiency—DCIM provides environmental (temperature, humidity, air flow), power (at the device, rack, zone and data center level) and cooling data. This information can be used to alert management when thresholds are exceeded, reducing repair time and increasing availability. It also provides insights into how to reduce energy usage and costs.
- Reduced risk—DCIM software allows organizations to automate repetitive administrative tasks like data migration and storage reclamation—and reduce the potential for human error, which accounts for up to 80% of all data center outages. With fewer day-to-day administrative tasks to contend with, IT managers have more time to devote to higher-level strategic decisions.
Considering all these benefits, DCIM could be a smart investment for your data center customers—large and small. The cost and time savings alone make it well worth it.
If you’d like to talk it over with one of our data center experts, contact Sam Alt at
samuel.alt@ingrammicro.com or Nick Vermiglio at
nick.vermiglio@ingrammicro.com.