AMIE-Avocent's ambition to integrate data center management (1)

If you can see the status of each device in the data center at a glance, such as location, power consumption, cooling, weight, and communication connection information, it will obviously be helpful for integrated management of the data center, in the past, almost no company's products were able to achieve this. Out of helplessness, some System Engineers still use Excel sheets to archive complicated data center equipment. However, after Avocent launches the Avocent MergePoint Infrastructure javaseravocent MergePoint Infrastructure browser, this product, referred to as AMIE, may end users' current embarrassment.

Challenges from data centers

In the past, data centers were relatively isolated in managing key information such as power distribution, network, space, refrigeration, equipment, and even weight, system Administrators often rely on an Excel sheet from the beginning for management. As devices change frequently and multiple administrators operate in parallel, the authenticity and integrity of the materials are getting lower and lower. At the same time, monotonous tables cannot give clear and intuitive instructions to data center managers, and data centers in various regions are suffering from multiple tests of exhausted space, power, and cooling capacity. At the same time, the rapid growth of IT demand also continues to surpass the expansion speed of data center equipment. In this environment, how to reduce the risk of configuration changes, and how to better plan the data center has achieved better efficiency and ROI has become the primary issue for data center managers.

The launch of Avocent MergePoint Infrastructure Explorer (AMIE), a new product for capacity planning and management, is undoubtedly oriented to this market.

Direct access to data center Resources

Providing detailed information about data center assets and real-time monitoring of power, heat and other environmental factors is the next frontier area of data centers. With AMIE, Avocent provides a method to draw a result chart before building or recreating a data center. On the Avocent on-site presentation page, we can see that AMIE can first flat the data center and display the cabinets, refrigeration, and power distribution in parallel, different performances of green, yellow, orange, and red indicate different resource usage conditions, so that data center managers can track power consumption and understand cooling capabilities, understanding the accurate differences with expectations can significantly reduce the total power consumption and cooling consumption of the data center, so as to precisely grasp the energy consumption and improve the energy efficiency of the data center.

After the detection and smart power allocation units (IPDU) are gradually deployed, AMIE can provide IT managers with comprehensive monitoring of the data center environment, and can orchestrate, plan, track, and define performance, plan and manage assets.

 
Cai Zhigang, general manager of Avocent China-AMIE announcement

At the cabinet level, AMIE uses a built-in detailed CMDB configuration management database to visually display the devices in the cabinet, whether server, storage, or network communication devices. With AMIE, IT managers can see each device in the data center at a Glance. They can learn about each device in the data center, such as the location, power, weight, and connectivity, and make more informed ROI decisions, IT also allows IT managers to take the initiative to respond to changes, so that they can know what will happen before making changes, so as to better control costs. Cai Zhigang, general manager of Avocent China, said that if AMIE is used for data centers with more than 50 cabinets, there will be significant return on investment.