Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/734838
12 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com In the demonstration system, the Connectivity Engine is an integral part of both the server's out-of-band management soware and an Internet of ings (IoT) Gateway that provides the system dashboard, overall rack management and aggregation of data from servers, thermal and power equipment, sensors and security apparatus. Various components in the system may not be "native" Redfish communicators, yet Redfish serves as a common lan- guage for communication between the management systems and various devices. is single-rack system is simple compared to a typical data center; however it does demonstrate the potential for extending Redfish beyond server management and enabling legacy devices across the data center with Redfish support. redfish and software-defined ManageMent Modern data centers must be location agnostic. Capacity should be managed fluidly and securely across an ecosystem that includes on-premise data centers, edge data centers, colocation facilities and hybrid cloud environments. Data center systems in each location must work in concert, without manual intervention, to adapt to constantly changing conditions. at promise can only be realized through the integration of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), which is greatly simplified by a common specification across IT and OT systems. Redfish has the functionality, security and openness required to enable this integration. It is gaining traction in the market and, with the pending availability of translators like the Connectivity Engine; the path to a common language has become shorter and simpler. In the coming years we expect to see a parallel effort where more servers enter the market with organic Redfish support while infrastructure manufacturers use translators and gateways to Redfish-enable their devices and systems. Redfish alone doesn't address all of the challenges of soware-defined management. Data centers will need to build out the middle layer of management to provide aggregation at the sys- tem level, and deploy higher-level management systems capable of orchestrating activities across systems, but it does address the fundamental issue that impedes and complicates soware-defined management and automation. e sooner we begin the process of integrating Redfish into data center devices and enabling legacy devices with Redfish sup- port, the sooner we will address the challenges of security, avail- ability, efficiency and scalability facing data center operators. n about the author: Patrick Quirk is the Vice President and General Manager, Converged Systems at Emerson Network Power. Architecture of the Redfish connectivity engine used to enable legacy devices with Redfish support.