Matthew Baynes, enterprise sales director, APC by Schneider Electric looks at how to make the most of your data centre

A good definition of DCIM is supplied by Andy Lawrence of 451 Group: “A data centre infrastructure management system collects and manages information about a data centre’s assets, resource use and operational status. This information is then distributed, integrated, analyzed and applied in ways that help managers meet business and service-oriented goals and optimize their data centre’s performance.”

According to the Uptime Institute the market for DCIM systems will grow from $500 Million in 2010 to $7.5 Billion by 2020. Likewise, Gartner has forecast the rapid adoption of software by the market. This massive business opportunity which leading opinion formers have settled upon perhaps explains a growing number of vendors -  currently 55 suppliers offering 70 products, the majority of which have been introduced in the last two years.

Energy efficiency in the data centre remains a strong motivating force for the adoption of greater automation. So does risk aversion as increased complexity – driven by increasing numbers of virtual machines – and the need for near-perfect uptime as organisations prepare to execute new IT strategies including the adoption of their preferred Cloud flavour.

Latest generation DCIM tools are designed to identify and resolve issues with a minimum amount of human intervention. These more intelligent tools also enable IT to inform business of the consequences of their actions before decisions are implemented. Charge backs for energy consumption are also made possible with these tools, altering the way decisions are made by aligning energy usage to business outcomes.

Planning: The impact of decisions
Planning tools improve data centre operational efficiency and create an environment for process improvements. Using a graphical user interface (GUI), they illustrate the current physical state of the data centre and simulate the effect of any changes.  This capability answers some common planning questions, such as where to place a server, or whether existing infrastructure can support the introduction of new technologies.

Planning tools can predict the impact of IT load changes on space, power and cooling capacities, helping data centre operators to respond to failures or prevent failures from occurring, therefore helping maintain business continuity. Their deployment can save hundreds of man hours and thousands of pounds in downtime costs annually. These benefits extend to new private Cloud environments.

Operations: Completing more tasks in less time
Automated workflow tools allow operators to assign work orders, reserve space, track status, and extract an audit trail for complete visibility and history to the change cycle when equipment goes in and out. Typical questions answered by Operations Tools include what is my workflow, how can I address hotspots, what is the overall health of the data centre, what can I do when power capacity is exceeded in a rack, what is the facility PUE?

Analysis: Identifying operational strengths and weaknesses
The best indicator of future performance is measurement of past performance; the goal with analysis is to arrive at optimal or realistic decisions based on real data. Analysis of physical infrastructure operational data can also determine the cause of problems (i.e., what is slow, what is costly).  Combining analytics and predictive simulation is yet another way the data centre can help to generate business value.

Performance reports track outages by rack, row, and power distribution zone.  When servers fail more frequently in one area, an underlying reason can be determined.  Without a frame of reference, the value of metrics is limited if the purpose is to raise efficiency and reduce data centre cost.

Stranded capacity is a frustrating management problem. It is difficult to explain how a data centre with 1 MW of installed power and cooling can’t cool new blade servers when only operating at 200 kW of total IT load. Effective capacity management can not only identify and highlight stranded capacity, but also helps prevent the situation in the first place.

Conclusions
With the challenges of higher-density computing, dynamic workloads and the need for more efficient energy consumption, organisations require software that enables them to plan, operate at low cost, and analyse for workflow improvement.  Only higher visibility, more control and improved automation can help deliver improved business value.

Holistic management capabilities can enable data centre professionals to maximise facility capacity, control energy costs and advise the business on how to utilise IT assets more effectively.  By sharing key data points, historical data, and asset tracking information, and by developing the ability to charge back users, the new Planning & Implementation tools allow users to take actions based upon data centre business intelligence.