Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/324708
www.datacenterjournal.com 4 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL networks as well as the efficient allocation of finite site resources including space, power, and cooling. And that points to another data center trend. Over the last decade, man- agement of the data center as a business platform has shied from building system management (BSM) to data center infra- structure management (DCIM). While BSM emerged to give facility managers some basic monitoring capabilities, DCIM emerged to bring together IT and facilities teams and provide more comprehensive and fine-grained monitoring and manage- ment of site and data center resources. Today, the best-in-class DCIM plat- forms can pay for themselves very quickly in terms of energy and cooling cost sav- ings, avoided outages, and extended life of data center equipment. e strong business case gives IT access to game-changing data center oversight. e single-pane-of-glass visibility offered by a DCIM platform can take the guesswork out of resource plan- ning for data center initiatives, and put the data center team in a very proactive posi- tion for optimally allocating and managing data center infrastructure assets as they prepare for future initiatives and respond to trends. DCIM platforms have evolved in tan- dem with several advancements in the data center, starting with fine-grained sensors. Servers, power-distribution units, airflow, and cooling equipment now include sensors that enable real-time querying of temperature and power consumption. When gathered and aggregated within a DCIM platform or console, the sensor data can drive thermal and power maps for at- a-glance views of the data center. Hot spots can be identified before any equipment is damaged or failures lead to outages. Automatic threshold monitoring can also drive workload shis to avoid disruptions to services and better balance resource utilization. e high price of energy and the rapid rate of growth of the data center segment have put power management, in particular, in the spotlight. Besides giving facilities and IT teams real-time visibility of actual power use (vs. reliance on mod- eled consumption or calculations based on vendor-specified maximums), sensor data can be part of a real-time feedback loop. DCIM platforms can react to the sensor data to cap energy consumption and adjust server performance levels to stay within the thresholds. ey can shi workloads among servers and even among data cen- ters, as part of an effort to lower the energy cost for a service. In essence, IT can bal- ance compute services and energy demand with power availability and costs. Besides real-time monitoring and management, the sensor data can be logged for analysis. By giving IT a better understanding of historical usage patterns, the sensor data supports better decision making. e company can consider future data center initiatives with a clear under- standing of the total costs including power. e infrastructure growth can be defined in terms of energy and cooling changes, and new sites can be planned using real numbers for the business' actual activities. Another data center advancement, the virtual gateway, has evolved DCIM to include more flexible management techniques. In the past, data center and network operation center (NOC) managers have employed remote keyboard, video, and mouse (KVM) capabilities to trouble- shoot and support end-user desktops, workstations, systems, and applications. KVM overlay networks connected the central support team to the desired target systems, but also added complexity to the infrastructure and data center. Virtual KVM solutions give IT a soware-enabled gateway through which to view and manage remote systems. Besides eliminating the hardware switches and connections, the new approach lends itself to anytime, anywhere browser access and therefore easy integration with DCIM consoles and platforms. e soware KVM solutions can also be more easily and quickly updated to keep pace with new endpoint hardware or network protocols. At a higher level, latest genera- tion of DCIM platforms are leveraging the hardware-embedded sensors and remote monitoring capabilities to deliver easy-to-use console solutions for small and medium businesses. For the larg- est enterprises and service providers, the DCIM solution providers offer consoles that support multi-tenant monitoring and multi-site data center management. In all cases, complexity is avoided by leveraging in-place networks and open standards for connecting to and gathering status from data center assets. Real-world use cases for the latest DCIM solutions take the guesswork out of this particular trend. IT managers can read about the results that can be achieved in terms of energy savings, improved up time, and other measurable returns on investments. Some of the world's biggest and most-mission-critical data centers have documented their adoption of DCIM and holistic energy management, for example. e immediate benefits being shared include energy cost savings of 15 to 20%. DCIM is also supporting efforts to migrate to more energy-conserving high temperature ambient (HTA) operations, and geographically distributing workloads to benefit from lower energy rates. Top trends in the data center? Opinions and conclusions will always vary. DCIM for energy and asset management? e experts agree that real-time monitor- ing and management will be a requirement for any growth-centric data center initia- tive in the future. n about the author: Jeff Klaus is the general manager of Data Center Manager (DCM) Solutions, at Intel Corporation, where he has managed various groups for more than 14 years. Klaus's team is pioneering power- and thermal- management middleware, which is sold through an ecosystem of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software companies and OEMs. A graduate of Boston College, Klaus also holds an MBA from Boston University. He can be reached at Jeffrey.S.Klaus@intel.com. Plug&Play DataCenter Cabling DIY Plug Play Save + 40% or more Step 1: Step 2: & We pre-terminate, pre-bundle, pre-test, pre-kit and pre-everything so all you have to do is Plug & Play. cablesys.com/cpp cs@cablesys.com 800.555.7176 *Visit Cablesys.com/cpp for complete details. © Copyright 2014, Cablesys. Performance 15 Year Warranty Gigabit - CAT 6 10G - CAT 6A VoIP - CAT 5e On 1 st order Free$20 CoffeeCard * Patch Cords 20% Off all When ordered with P&P * mpr-0464 - DATA CENTER JOURNAL JUNE 2014 B.indd 1 5/14/2014 9:13:47 AM