Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/734838
22 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL www.datacenterjournal.com 6. is yoUr power chain secUre? e security of your power chain determines the safety of your infrastructure. Even if your IT security is top notch, your facilities staff may be less strict. Make sure your IT security has evaluated the net- work vulnerabilities of your power chain's devices—a task that's part of IT security protocols. Determine who has access to your control points and who authorizes that access. Also, make sure you know the following: • When the passwords were last updated. • Whether contractors are entering and leaving your facility and the type of access they have. Although each device connects to a net- work, it may not be secure even though it can control other devices. Beyond IT security, can a stranger infiltrate your system, from the inside or outside, and shut everything down? All these factors require monitoring and control. Helping to insulate data centers from catastrophic power failure is within any or- ganization's grasp. e following are several companies that have mitigated the risk of power failure. Large financial-services organization: e customer in this case knew it was in dangerous territory. It just didn't know how dangerous until it installed a real-time power-monitoring system and immediately identified a serious failover issue. Side A of the power chain was overloaded and Side B was underpowered. In the case of a failure, Side B never would have been able to handle the additional load. anks to the real-time intelligence the company gained from the DCIM system, it was able to immediately head off potential server failures. Large service provider: is colocation company was responsible for the uptime of several large tenants. By monitoring branch circuits, it began to see patterns of increased power fluctuations and was able to identify the circuits at risk and gain insight into potential power issues. Midsize e-commerce company: Aer deploying a DCIM system, this customer determined that although its servers had redundant power, its network equipment did not. is information helped the company head off a potentially disastrous network failure. In conclusion, full transparency into operations is paramount to streamlin- ing many processes. In other words, you cannot optimize what you cannot see or understand. DCIM solutions provide this full visibility through real-time and intuitive dashboards that support sound financial and operational decisions. Using this infor- mation, data center managers can quickly do the following: • View the interdependencies of all connected devices. • Receive real-time information from facilities and IT equipment • Test system resiliency • Determine risk levels by running "what if " simulations. • Witness trends as they unfold across the data center portfolio • Head off issues before they occur ink of it this way: you wouldn't drive a car down the highway unless you had a dashboard providing real-time data, in an understandable format, to enable safe operation. is is the same philosophy that DCIM offers data center managers. If you don't have the visibility across your data centers, you are driving blind, and an "accident" could cost you millions, in lost revenue and brand value. n about the author: Mark Gaydos is chief marketing officer for Nlyte Software, the leading data center service management (DCSM) solution provider for seamlessly automating data center operations and infrastructure in an enterprise's IT ecosystem. 2016FallConFerenCe end-to-endreliability:MissionCritiCalFaCilities SAVE THE DATE OctOber 23 – 26, 2016 JW Marriott Desert Ridge Phoenix, AZ Terry Jones Founder and Former CEO, Travelocity Former Chairman, Kayak.com Conference Keynote: "on innovation" 2016 Fall ConFerenCe Corporate leadership program partners (at press time) MarquisPlus+ Partners Gold Partners silver Partners Media Partners www.7x24exchange.org 16Fall DCJ_STD_8375w525_2fx_DCJ Half page ad 8/30/16 3:59 PM Page 1