The importance of Data Center Infrastructure Management

The life cycle of the data center, like many other systems, is comprised a variety of components. A key element in the life cycle is the Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM). Having accurate information that can be accessed by the entire team is core component to making decisions quickly and accurately. The data the team needs is dynamic and without accurate information the group will run into stumbling blocks.

What groups need this info?

· Finance department - the need to track capital assets placed into production and what date they will be fully depreciated, as well as tracking proper disposal of depreciated assets. Having a central data store to manage the IT systems will enable the finance department to view capital assets, track their movement and reduce countless hours of frustration locating and identifying capital assets.

· Real estate – when planning the data center, this group needs to know the number of servers and racks planned for initial installation and projected growth for 5 to 10 years.  Many other factors need to be considered regarding the equipment, such as: height, weight, power utilization, redundancy requirements, heat loads, etc. All of these data points will change throughout the design phase of the project requiring proper management and utilization of the data on order to avoid project delays. The typical method of individuals using multiple spreadsheets to track these items falls woefully short. Having a central data store to manage the IT systems will enable the real estate group to quickly track the changing data center requirements during the design phase as well as throughout the facilities’ production life cycle.

· Risk Management – various criteria need to be evaluated in order to determine how to balance costs with the need for failover, backup, and redundant systems. Users, support groups, system functions, and running applications all need to be tracked in a meaningful way and disaster recovery plans need to be continually updated with all of this information. Having a central data store with the proper workflows allows the business to be better prepared for problems when they occur.

· IT Department – as the group that manages most of the hardware and software infrastructure, the IT Department needs the tools to efficiently maintain, track, and manage the entire datacenter infrastructure. Proper workflows and data integrity are needed to maintain the system. Having a central data store will allow the various teams to see what is taking place in the data centers and provide the foundation to develop corporate dashboards.

DCIM Software Needs

Ethixa can assist your business with DCIM planning and implementation. We can enable the business to make better decisions and eliminate waste.  Ethixa can assist the business in determining if an off the shelf application will fit your business needs or if a custom solution would be better. 

Daily Operations

Ethixa is experienced in the operational support of datacenters and their ongoing day-to-day operations, including the planning and installation of new equipment, scheduling and coordinating the activities related to quarterly, and annual testing of critical infrastructure systems.