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THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 27 www.datacenterjournal.com to quickly identify assets, their locations and how they're connected is imperative in a rapidly changing environment. DCIM can track and monitor energy performance and power reliability as well as IT-system capacity and space utilization. David Cap- puccio, an analyst for Gartner, says that DCIM is an offshoot of the green-IT initia- tive and originally was designed to do basic energy monitoring, reporting and manage- ment at the data center level. Today, DCIM has evolved and allows for fast integration of different silos, including IT physical- infrastructure management, facilities management and systems management. DeterMIne the rIght analytIC tools: Smart data centers must be reliable, flexible and cost-effective. Selecting the right tools to monitor, analyze and manage the infrastructure is paramount to extend- ing the life of the data center as well as rationalizing the infrastructure across the company. Identifying the right tools for your particular environment will go a long way in improving operations while reduc- ing overall infrastructure costs. unDerstanDIng Pue anD DCIe: Power usage effectiveness (PUE), coined by the Green Grid consortium in 2007, is a measurement of how efficiently a data center uses energy. Data center infra- structure efficiency (DCiE) is the inverse of PUE. According to e Green Grid, "PUE is an excellent metric for understanding how well a data center is delivering energy to its information technology equipment. e metric is best applied for looking at trends in an individual facility over time and measuring the effects of different design and operational decisions within a specific facility." e Green Grid defines PUE as the ratio of total facilities energy to IT-equipment energy. ere are many subcomponents of PUE, including build- ing management, HVAC, security, power, computer and network devices, IT support systems, telecommunications and storage. Over time there has been confusion in the comparison of PUEs among data centers, raising questions about how to interpret individual results, how to compare differ- ent results for the same data center and how to compare results across different data centers. To help with this dilemma, e Green Grid published a set of rules and guidelines regarding the process that organizations should follow when making public claims regarding their data centers' PUE measurements. It provides a free PUE-reporting tool online (https://www. thegreengrid.org/register/pue-reporting- form.aspx) huMan resourCes: Properly staffing your data center is equally important to managing IT devices and infrastructure. A firm knowledge of your operation's objectives is a good place to start. According to David Boston of the Boston Consulting Group, "Operations objectives should drive the appropriate size and structure of the data center staff." Facility interruption, support of cus- tomer requests, preventive maintenance, incident reporting, special projects and other important tasks must be considered when staffing. Ongoing training is also an important consideration—especially on systems and emergency procedures. Just as pilots go through their preflight check- list, proper knowledge and adherence to procedures can help mitigate human error and improve the overall uptime of the data center. DIsaster reCovery PlannIng anD IMPleMentatIon: Proper planning for an emergency or disaster can make all the difference in getting the data center back up and run- ning. e "it won't happen here" mentality simply can't be tolerated. Events such as power outages, floods, fires, storms, equip- ment failure, sabotage and terrorism are all potential threats that need to be considered and planned against. Defining the right plan and best practices for your organiza- tion are paramount for resuming opera- tions. is process takes analytic thinking. Quality Technology Solutions, a network integrator and security-service provider, poses important questions that should be discussed and answered: • What needs to be protected and what is its value to the business? • What are all the critical assets? • What redundant systems are in place? • How long will it take to recover? • Has a communications plan been assigned? • Who will implement and test the plan? thInk holIstICally aBout the Data Center: ere is always pressure to run the data center as efficiently and cost-effective- ly as possible. is is a big task with many unique elements, each demanding specific requirements. Data center design and layout, capacity planning, IT-equipment selection, communications networking, power and cooling infrastructure, security, uptime and energy-efficiency schemes must be thought out in an all-inclusive way to help avoid pitfalls—or, worse yet, downtime. e role of today's data center man- ager continues to evolve. It's a big job and one that certainly requires top analytical skills to make the best decisions. Mak- ing the C-suite happy at the same time is nirvana. n about the author: Promoted to president in 2009, Frank DeLattre joined Vycon in 2007 to take the helm of the company's Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and Power Quality division. Frank brings a wealth of knowledge and technical sales experience in both domestic and international markets, having spent more than 20 years in power quality and related industries. He began his career at Topaz Electronics, a manufacturer of uninterruptible power systems. In 1990, he joined Deltec Electronics, also a manufacturer of UPSs, as vice president of international sales. In 1999, he joined Active Power, a manufacturer of flywheel energy-storage systems. In 2003, Frank was appointed vice president of sales for Cherokee International, a leading manufacturer of AC-DC custom power supplies. Before joining VYCON, he served as senior vice president of sales, marketing and service at Pentadyne, a Los Angeles-based flywheel company. Frank holds an MBA from West Coast University and a BS from San Diego State Univer 6 7 8 9 10