Uncover the mysteries of data Center infrastructure Management (DCIM)

When the Internet of things was a long time ago, when computers weren't personal enough, cellphones, refrigerators, and cars were not smart enough, did you remember the ads on TV that used to repeat a brand oil filter?

The price of high-grade oil filters is nearly one-fold higher than the average brand, which is undoubtedly very expensive for users. Therefore, this high-end brand of products first entered the market when the user has suffered very serious resistance. However, as its superior technology gradually improves the performance of the car, it also reduces the chance of failure and avoids costly overhaul costs. There is no doubt that people are more inclined to replace the oil filter than to replace the car engine.

So the product gradually gained the favor of users, and ultimately occupy the dominant position of the market.

The revelations of this old-fashioned marketing story can be applied to some of today's misconceptions and error logic about data center infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions.

Myth One: DCIM is too expensive

Intel commissioned the Redshift Research Institute to consult 200 data center managers from the United States and the UK. The biggest dilemma, according to the survey, is that 43% of data center managers still rely on manual methods to replace DCIM tools for capacity planning and forecasting.

As we enter the digital age, Microsoft's Excel forms software, and even the traditional measuring tape, still occupy a very important position in the toolkit of many infrastructure managers, which seems counterintuitive. But this is true, and today only 55% of data center managers are using the DCIM platform. The biggest objection to deploying a DCIM solution is perceived costs, with 46% of respondents saying they think DCIM is too expensive to implement.

At first glance, data center managers ' concerns about costs seem reasonable. However, considering that DCIM tools can provide managers with effective information to identify operational issues and help determine real-world operational costs, hidden costs, and the true causes of system outages, any cost-based objections to DCIM are misleading. Be aware that the 118 data centers surveyed can clearly quantify the average cost of each outage to $28900!

Don't make a mistake. Whether due to hardware failure, power supply, or thermal issues, large data centers inevitably face operational disruptions and downtime at some point in their lifecycle. Only the data center managers who have deployed DCIM analysis tools for capacity planning and thermal performance monitoring can clearly calculate the cost of disruption to the business, while data center managers who do not deploy DCIM are only 14% per cent capable of doing so.

In addition, since time is money, the average recovery time required for a statistical datacenter outage is close to 8 hours. It is worth noting that 21% of the data centers deployed in DCIM can effectively control recovery time within 2 hours. Data centers that do not use DCIM tools can do this in only 11% of the scale. The ratio is nearly twice times the difference!

Myth Two: The implementation of DCIM requires more time and resources

35% of data center managers say the manual approach to data center capacity planning and forecasting is due to concerns about the lack of the necessary time and resources to implement more automated deployment scenarios. The reason seems convincing on the surface. In fact, 56% of the data center managers who use manual methods need to devote more than 40% of their time per month to capacity planning and forecasting.

Data center managers such contradictory conditions reflect a vicious cycle. Data center managers using manual methods say they lack the time and resources to deploy the DCIM tools for capacity planning and forecasting, because most of their time is wasted on certain tasks that can be done automatically by DCIM.

Misunderstanding three: Cabinet thermal sensors and spreadsheets are enough to easily complete the cooling work in the room

The power consumption of the data center is huge. According to the National Resource Protection Commission, the power consumption of data centres will reach an annual average of about 140 Billion-kilowatt by 2020, equivalent to the annual production capacity of 50 power plants, which costs $13 billion per year for electricity only. In addition to the cost of running the server, the heat dissipation also consumes a large part of the power, so effectively improve the efficiency of the dispersion is a necessary means to save the total cost of operation.

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57% of the data centers surveyed say they have experienced thermal-related challenges over the past year and have thus seriously impacted operational efficiencies. 63% of the data centers are currently using DCIM analysis tools to help optimize thermal efficiency, while up to 20% of the data centers are now relying only on cabinet thermal sensors and spreadsheets to perform thermal work. Data centers that do not use DCIM analysis tools are less likely to implement hot-spot audits, and more likely to perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.

The CFD function is the core feature of the DCIM solution, and can continuously improve and adjust the thermal strategy and air conditioning options with real-time monitoring information. The DCIM system with CFD capabilities will have a direct and positive impact on the operation of the data center.

Conclusion

Data center managers need to collect accurate data information, including energy, heat, airflow, and usage, for the right operational decisions. With the popularization of DCIM tools and the increasing level of automation control, the operational efficiency of data center managers is increasing, and timely response to common operational challenges, such as capacity planning and distribution, as well as cooling efficiency. Any cost-benefit analysis of DCIM investments should take into account resource savings, reduced downtime and improved cooling efficiency, which will ultimately have a positive impact on ROI.

In other words, the experience gained from the old-fashioned oil filters mentioned at the beginning of this article still applies in today's digital age.

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Author Introduction:

Mr. Jefkraus is the general manager of Data Center Manager (DCM) solutions for Intel Corporation in the United States. At Intel Corporation, Jefkraus has more than 13 years of team management experience. His team is developing a middleware product for energy and thermal management. Mr. Jefkraus holds an MBA degree from Boston University in Business administration.

This article is from the Intel Data Center Management specialist blog, so be sure to keep this source http://inteldcm.blog.51cto.com/11451124/1785588

Uncover the mysteries of data Center infrastructure Management (DCIM)