Six Questions To Ask When Implementing DCIM Solution

In order to help datacentre managers better manage the critical information gap between the physical and virtual layers in the datacentre, Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity, has announced six key questions datacentre managers should ask when implementing a datacentre infrastructure management (DCIM) solution.

Datacentre managers have been challenged to maintain or increase IT availability, server utilisation and efficiency in the face of rising costs and demands. One strategy to help address these challenges is virtualisation, which increases server utilisation and enables greater energy efficiency. But virtualisation also makes it more difficult to predict the demand on physical systems at any given time. As a result of the uncertainty in physical system demand, the datacentre manager is compelled to reserve a resource buffer against overload at peak capacity. A holistic DCIM approach provides new insights into the relationships between facilities and IT infrastructure components, enabling datacentre managers to better optimise their datacentre resource consumption.

These are the questions Emerson Network Power recommends datacentre managers ask before deploying a DCIM solution:

1. What are the critical infrastructure assets in my datacentre and what are their respective mission interdependencies? An inventory repository can provide the datacentre manager with a “reality check” of today’s high-value assets, as well as context in the datacentre plan for tomorrow. This forward-looking insight gives a continual business-oriented view into these critical assets allowing better return-on-investment (ROI) on assets as well as freeing up datacentre budget for other compelling priorities—a top of mind concern for datacentre managers.

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2. If asked by my management, could I quickly retrieve a comprehensive monitoring and analysis report of all the assets in my datacentre, and would this report identify bottlenecks? An effective DCIM solution should monitor all space, power and cooling attributes within the datacentre environment. To avoid an environmental-based operational failure, the DCIM solution should provide reports that enable the datacentre manager to take proactive action. The ability to report these datacentre conditions should be available on-demand to the datacentre manager.

3. Can my datacentre manage day-to-day workloads with flexibility while servicing on-demand needs as they arrive for my company? The DCIM solution should provide process workflow that can perform:

• Scenario development—the ability to model changes before they go into production,

• Nested processes that list steps that must be completed before an action is approved,

• Measurement against service level agreements (SLAs), which are standard or custom metrics for measuring success, and

• The ability to provision into underutilised space, power and cooling capacity. This function should recommend optimal placement for devices based on their unique requirements and the existing load/capacity in the infrastructure.

4. Does this DCIM solution provide the trend analysis and intelligence needed for my team to deliver a comprehensive capacity management plan? To gain control of the current and future usage of datacentre resources, DCIM solutions should provide datacentre managers with insight into:

• Projection pipelines—what projects are in various stages of approval and what the impact will be on the infrastructure, and

• Trending for current and projected utilisation (curves based on historical usage). For example, datacentre management should be able to tell when capacity or cooling will run out, based on utilisation trends.

5. What intuitive web-based executive summary and planning tools are provided in the solution? DCIM solutions should provide configurable web-based dashboards and analytics standard within the product. Automating the operational intelligence gathering and reporting through a comprehensive web-based dashboard enables an executive summary that becomes the single source of truth into DCIM and planning.

6. Will the DCIM solution align with IT and business services? Aligning IT service to address business objectives and needs is paramount. Any DCIM solution must enable datacentre management to align their respective resource consumption with their current ITSM, ITIL and BSM strategies.

“Datacentre managers are under more pressure than ever to achieve higher capacities with greater efficiency and less risk of downtime,” said Steve Hassell, President of the Avocent business of Emerson Network Power. “A holistic DCIM strategy is a datacentre manager’s best partner in meeting the stringent business demands in a modern-day datacentre environment. To successfully implement a DCIM strategy, datacentre managers must be on the lookout for the best family of hardware, software and services that allows them to address the critical infrastructure gap.”