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THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 1 www.datacenterjournal.com Feature 2 the Growth oF DCIM: how It has been MIsunDerstooD anD how to use It eFFeCtIvely by Joe Reele Over the past several years, the term DCIM has grown in use throughout the data center industry. Many have embraced the importance of DCIM in helping to regulate, optimize, manage and maintain the data center. But despite growing awareness of this solution, it is commonly misunderstood. DesIGn corner 6 CoMMIssIonInG your Controls shoulD not be overlookeD by Brian Durham Common frustrations expressed by datacenter owners are that they feel shortchanged by their controls system and are held hostage by it. It is quite possibly the single area of greatest opportunity to improve reliability, efficiency and performance. FaCIlItIes corner 10 Data Centers anD seCurIty by John G. Laskey I first set foot in a data center in 1990. Even then there were some spinning tapes of the sort you see in 1970s sci-fi movies. This data center processed records of national law-enforcement agencies and hosted a large staff. Most of the employees were there to change over the magnetic tapes, and my assignment was to work out new ways of managing backup media storage. 14 Four ChallenGes FaCInG Data Center FaCIlItIes teaMs toDay by Dan Klasen With the start of a new year, there are resolutions on everyone's mind. Inevitably management schedules that team meeting that starts out "how are we going to improve this year," "where can we find efficiencies" or "give me your top three best ideas for 2014." What can be a little disheartening is if this list starts to look a lot like last year's list. How can you move from challenges and issues to innovation and resolution? Itops 18 vIrtual MaChInes years later by Jeffrey R Clark, Ph.D Virtualization has been a major data center trend for a number of years, being driven by companies' desire for greater operating efficiency, lower capital costs, better use of existing floor and rack space, and reduced energy consumption. The heart of virtualization is the hypervisor or virtualization layer, which hides the server hardware and presents a "generalized" environment in which processes can run. These processes, or virtual machines, can be anything from single applications to entire operating systems. 22 CrItICal Data Center MetrICs by Jeffrey R Clark, Ph.D Imagine driving a car with no indicators or gauges on your dashboard. Now, imagine driving a car with an abundance of useful gauges. Information like speed, engine RPMs, coolant temperature, how quickly you're using fuel and so on all help ease the task of getting from here to there by letting you know what's happening under the hood. The situation in the data center is much the same: controls that measure, process and deliver operating information give data center managers the ability to better govern operations for optimum efficiency, performance and uptime. Itbusiness 26 MovInG Past the aGe oF over-ProvIsIonInG: the roI on DCIM by Michael Bord The legacies of early, over-provisioned data centers haunt us to this day. In the past, the absence of reliable information to act upon, led organizations to divert excess resources to the data center with the goal of maintaining high availability. And although high-availability became a reality, the cumulative cost of devices, facilities, utilities, and people grew exponentially with little insight into just how much benefit was being drawn. venDor InDeX All rights reserved. No portion of DATA CENTER Journal may be reproduced without written permission from the Executive Editor. The management of DATA CENTER Journal is not responsible for opinions expressed by its writers or editors. We assume that all rights in communications sent to our editorial staff are unconditionally assigned for publication. All submissions are subject to unrestricted right to edit and/ or to comment editorially. AN EDM2R ENTERPRISES, INC. PUBLICATION ALPHARETTA, GA 30022 PHONE: 678-762-9366 FAX: 866-708-3068 | WWW.DATACENTERJOURNAL.COM DESIGN : NEATWORKS, INC., JOHNS CREEK GA 30022 TEL: 678-392-2992 | WWW.NEATWORKSINC.COM To learn more, visit http://cablesystems.corning.com/1-pretiumedge © 2013 Corning Cable Systems. LAN-1655-AEN / June 2013 Introducing Pretium EDGE ® AO Solutions. Advanced optical technologies and elevated engineering for next-generation data center performance. Evolution The Next in our Data Center Revolution.