Q & A
Steve Beber of TRACKIT
Adopting a robust asset management solution will minimise human error .
Has the DCIM marketplace become overcrowded ?
I don ’ t think the issue is that it has become overcrowded , I believe the issue is there is no easy way to benchmark one DCIM solution against another and that this has also added to the confusion . There appear to be many part DCIM solutions in the market today that focus on elements of DCIM functionality BUT these are seldom the ones that have come from one particular area of strength and expertise . Some are very power focused and some more network and connectivity focused . Other solutions have been born from monitoring and alerting solutions but all of them seem to have a distinct weakness in asset management and easy method of maintaining accurate data .
It appears there are probably only one or two real players in the DCIM space that cover 90 per cent of the functionality promised as a holistic DCIM solution . But even then it really depends on the organisations true requirement and end goal versus their understanding of DCIM as a potential solution . Every customer is different and there is no single pain of glass or one fits all solution .
What are the advantages of asset management in the data centre ?
Quite simple . You can ’ t manage or plan your data centre effectively if you can ’ t see what you have . Asset management gives clear visibility of what you have in your data centre and where exactly it is located . It provides valuable information on how much spare capacity you have , or when specific equipment is out of warranty / support and if an outage occurs what equipment will be affected .
Without this accurate asset view of the data centre management decisions are made based on bad data resulting in bad decisions . It ’ s not just about a one-off audit to just validate what you have , it ’ s also about putting a robust process in place to maintain accurate data efficiently . It is also important not to prohibit daily moves and change workflow but effectively provide real time data involved with those core processes direct from the data centre floor . Fundamentally you can ’ t optimise your data centre and the assets within them if you don ’ t have FULL visibility . All of our solutions , services and expertise enable our customers to make important strategic decisions based on accurate , trusted asset data . Our experience has shown that all successful intelligent data centre management solutions have been based on a solid foundation of accurate asset data knowledge . This is explored fully in our white paper which is freely available – details at the end of this article .
Is asset management recommended in small scale data centres ?
There is no size limit , both large or small . Every data centre should have an accurate inventory of what they have and where it is located . We have audited communications rooms and data centres as small as five racks through to large data centres with over 1,000 racks and 30,000 devices . You have to look at how important IT and technology is to ALL businesses these days – it doesn ’ t matter if you ’ re a small business with 20 staff or a large corporate with 20,000 staff , leveraging IT is critical to maintaining high levels of business performance that their customers demand in terms of service delivery and processes . An effective data centre is at the heart of any successful business today .
What can be done to reduce the risk of downtime caused by human error ?
By escaping from legacy solutions like Excel and manual methods of collecting and maintaining data . We ’ ve seen from experience that the human error rate from using spreadsheets to collect data is significant and can prove costly . Companies spend a lot of time verifying and updating this bad data , as well as making bad decisions based on it .
Adopting a robust asset management solution will minimise human error . By having a baseline model library of devices that the customer can select from , the ability to drag and drop devices into racks in an application and providing a rack elevation view ( both front and rear ) that clearly shows what the rack looks like populated with devices is proven to reduce human error drastically . Having a good asset management solution in place really does mean you have your finger on the pulse of your data centre and peace of mind that if you need to locate a device fast , you are 100 per cent confident you can .
What is the future for asset management in the data centre ?
We see DCAM as being something that customers can pay for as a cloud based solution and a more effective option than often overly complicated alternatives . Instead of high cost enterprise licenses and large scale requirements for professional services , asset management needs to be an agile and adaptable on-demand solution . This delivers the core benefits of ease of use and increased flexibility so that customers can effectively and efficiently do this themselves . We also see the benefits of having open source integration so that users can share solutions online so companies don ’ t have to pay for professional services to replicate this .
A solution that grows and adds features and functionality that stretches beyond the data centre so companies can manage ALL business assets in one place . The future for TRACKIT is providing generic asset management as well as easy to use , scalable , selfservicing data centre and IT asset management solutions . We are quickly becoming a world that demands light weight , intuitive applications and this is where TRACKIT will continue to develop innovative services and solutions to meet that demand . Finally , drawing upon our experience , we have produced a white paper that highlights the need for better asset management . It includes a DCAM model for everyone in the industry to use as a guideline and summarise the different stages of intelligence required for effective DCIM implementation starting with asset management .
You can request a copy of the white paper by emailing info @ trackitsolutions . com
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