Stephen Bowes-Phipps discusses whether DCIM is really worth the investment and how to square the DCIM circle.

1. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
Squaring The DCIM Circle

2. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
The first problem you have with many of the DCIM vendors,
is that they tend to want you to buy the whole suite of
functionality. This represents an exorbitant layout of budget
for features that you may never use, or use to such a small
extent that you may not realise any specific benefit. Some
products can’t be split out, and some others come
modularised so the more you want, the more you pay.
Other vendors take a more pragmatic approach – provide
you with the basic functionality, with plenty of added value
trimmings and price it low so that you can realise maximum
benefit for minimum cost.
The Problems You Have With DCIM Vendors

3. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
Your data centre may have been designed to support an engineer with
a clipboard, not an ip-enabled monitoring and management subsystem
that can provide real-time metrics from within systems, plant and
equipment. In this case, your choices are fairly limited. You can (and
should) at the very least have some basic power metering put into
place which are addressable by the DCIM. The next area of focus
would be your environmental system (EMS). Next would be the
cabinets and IT equipment themselves. Finally, the next basic
ingredient in the mix would be the plant and mechanical equipment. All
this is achievable retrospectively, but it may come with a high cost in
both money terms and in-flight changes to the facility that could result
in planned shutdowns.
Do Your Homework Before You Buy The Product

4. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
Well, the University of Hertfordshire Data Centres that I
managed for seven years were only truly controllable once I
understood how they performed all year round, by month and
day and even down to as low as 30 minutes timeframes. The
profiles I recorded showed up any anomalies that might have
resulted in an unplanned data centre outage or significant loss
of energy efficiency. One particular time, I spotted that a vital
piece of control equipment had not been switched back on
after a service, causing all of the CRAHs to work at 100% all
of the time, burning pound notes along the way. Pre-DCIM,
this would not have been obvious except to the eagle-eyed.
I Guess Your Asking If DCIM Is Worth It?

5. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
Over 20 years of operational systems management experience,
managing data centres since 1996. In 2007, joined the University
of Hertfordshire, becoming their data centres manager and have
been working to assist in embedding green ICT in UK HE/FE
institutions ever since. In 2010, the University of Hertfordshire
became the first to comply with the EU Code of Conduct for Data
Centres, and has won several awards for their green data
centre. Steve has presented at many conferences around the
world on best practices in green ICT and is a member of the
Data Centre Alliance Energy Efficiency group and the Best
Practices Committee of the EU Code of Conduct for Data
Centres.
About Steven Bowes-Phipps

6. Increased Resiliency - Improved Operational Efficiencies - Reduced Energy Costs
Data Centre Infrastructure Management
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Squaring The DCIM Circle
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