Unlock Greater Value
from DCIM with Asset
Intelligence
Optimize efficiency, capacity and availability with accurate real-time
visibility of data center assets and environmental conditions
Dhesikan Ananchaperumal
Distinguished Engineer and SVP, Engineering,
Infrastructure Management Solutions, CA Technologies
Richard Jenkins
Executive Summary 3
Section 1: 4
Satisfying the Appetite for More Data Center Resources
Section 2: 5
Turning Asset Data into Asset Intelligence with DCIM
Section 3: 7
A Recipe for Greater Success
Section 4: 9
Conclusions
Section 5: 9
About the Authors
Challenge
The data center is getting bigger and more complex and so too is the asset inventory. Every new asset has an impact on the day–to–day operations of the data center – from power consumption and problem resolution to capacity planning and change management. To achieve – and maintain – operational excellence, organizations don’t just need to know the location of their data center assets, they need to know if they are over-heating, under–performing or sitting idle.
Opportunity
By trading in manual audits and fragmented data for real-time sensors and integrated information, organizations can not only improve how they manage infrastructure assets but also improve operations of the entire data center. Combining greater asset intelligence with Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software enables IT and facilities departments to track assets through their lifecycle along with their operational performance and environmental conditions.
Benefits
With better visibility of assets and how they relate to data center operations and business outcomes, IT and facilities departments will be able to make better business decisions. As a result, organizations will be able to optimize efficiency, capacity, availability and sustainability. They will be able to continuously identify opportunities for improvement throughout the asset and data center lifecycle.
Section 1
Satisfying the Appetite for More Data Center Resources
It’s supersize me time for the data center: workload intensity is up, rack density is up and so too is power consumption. This insatiable desire for more data center resources is only going to intensify.
Digital services, mobile, social collaboration and big data analytics are just some of the reasons behind the change in the data center’s diet. But it’s not just new business initiatives that are fuelling greater demand; technology transformation is also contributing to the ‘supersize me’ age. According to IDC: “Data centers are growing more and more because of cloud computing, virtualization and application rationalization.”1
Every extra square foot of floor space and every new rack introduced to the data center means an influx of more assets. From the virtual server and the storage appliance to the cooling unit and the cabling, these assets all have a role to play in the operation of the data center. And, as with any good recipe, if any of these ingredients are missing or lacking in performance, then the end results will be impaired.
Enabling operational excellence
For today’s data center operators, these end results revolve around four key business drivers:
Capacity: More than half of organizations cite space as one of their biggest challenges in the data center.2
Although many businesses are genuinely running out of physical space as the rack footprint grows; system resources, however, are rarely being exploited to their full potential. It’s estimated some servers are running at less than 10 percent of their potential capacity3. This capacity gap often goes undetected due to
insufficient visibility of how infrastructure assets are being used – or not – resulting in over-provisioning.
Availability: A large number of data center operators experience at least one unplanned outage every year.
To safeguard availability in such a complex environment, organizations need to know if an aisle is over-heating, a cooling unit is leaking or a server is nearing capacity – and where to find the relevant assets.
Efficiency: As more workloads and business services become dependent on the data center, organizations
need to find ways to deliver more for less. Efficiency holds the key to not only greater operational
excellence and better service levels but also costs savings. Energy efficiency is particularly important given the rising cost of power – and the rising number of assets. For an 8,000 square foot data center in North America, the annual power bill is about $1.6 billion – and it is increasing about 20 per cent annually.2
Sustainability: Power consumption doesn’t just cost in terms of dollars, it also comes with a hefty
environmental price tag. With regulators, customers and investors all expecting organizations to demonstrate greater social and environmental responsibility, data center operators need to be able to link IT assets and business services to the consumption of natural resources – and identify more sustainable solutions.
For IT and facilities departments to maximize performance across all these areas, they need to be able to monitor, measure and manage every ingredient on today’s - and tomorrow’s – data center menu. And that means having a rigorous and real-time approach to asset management, which feeds into the overall operations of the data center.
Overcoming the asset management hurdle
With many organizations still reliant on manual processes, asset management is neither rigorous nor real-time. Audits are sporadic. Inventories are fragmented. And data is inaccurate. Research by analyst Quocirca revealed that it is common for an organization’s asset database to be off by plus or minus 20 percent on server numbers alone3. In a data center of 1,000 servers, that’s a lot of ghost machines. And a
lot of unnecessary power consumption too.
A manual-based approach to asset management doesn’t just increase the risk of data discrepancies; it prolongs the discovery and identification process. With data centers and their asset profiles constantly evolving, many manual audits are out of date before they are even finished.
As Forrester analyst Richard Fichera writes: “Asset management as it is done today is a problem for many companies…The most inaccurate pieces of information were cited as location, upgrade/update status and ‘is/is not’ – do we still own the asset and is it in use doing what we think it is doing?”4
For those organizations that have dipped their toe in the automated asset management pool, the data problems often remain. Without DCIM software, they now have a large quantity of data that is out of context and not actionable.
From location and configuration to power consumption and thermal conditions, asset management tools can capture a wealth of data – but volume does not always equal value. Organizations must be able make sense of this data in the wider context of the data center and the business to be able to deliver better outcomes.
Section 2
Turning Asset Data into Asset Intelligence with DCIM
Incident management. Change management. Capacity management. Every process in the data center involves IT and facilities assets. By changing how they track these assets and associated environmental conditions, organizations will not only be able to improve the performance of individual devices but also the performance of the entire data center ecosystem.
The base ingredient of asset management is high quality data. It needs to be accurate. It needs to be timely. It needs to be meaningful. And that can only be achieved by taking an automated and integrated approach to asset tracking. Goodbye spreadsheet, hello sensor.
Unlike barcodes and passive-RFID tags, active-RFID assets and sensor tags don’t require any ongoing manual intervention. Once they’ve been deployed, the real-time data feed begins. To ensure these sensors don’t add to the data center’s already crowded cabling architecture, organizations should look to deploy wire-free solutions with a long battery life.
Simplifying and accelerating the collation of asset data, however, is just the appetizer for an optimized data center. To be able to maximize efficiency, availability, capacity and sustainability, organizations need to be able to understand the data they collect. They need to aggregate. They need to correlate. And they need to evaluate. DCIM software turns asset data into asset intelligence; intelligence that can be shared and analyzed to deliver greater business value.
Putting data center assets on the map
DCIM has become the ‘signature dish’ for IT and facilities departments alike. With sales rising at more than 40 per cent a year, it’s estimated that the DCIM software market will be worth $1.8 billion by 2016.5
Efficiency, availability, capacity and sustainability are all DCIM drivers. As analyst 451 Research observes: “For those organizations for which efficient, agile IT and data center services are core, the effective and extensive use of management software (not just DCIM, but integrated, related systems) is becoming a strategic necessity.”5
To unlock the full potential of DCIM, reliable asset data is fundamental. Power can’t be properly redistributed if there’s no visibility to what is being consumed by which asset. Airflow can’t be modified if there’s no visibility into how many assets are located in each aisle. And new workloads can’t be provisioned if there’s no visibility into available capacity. Data center operations can only be optimized if organizations know the ‘what, where and how’ of every device.
With real-time sensors, IT and facilities departments can ensure that DCIM solutions are constantly polling the latest information as assets are deployed, moved, retired – or consigned to a storeroom.
By integrating sensor deployment with the procurement process, assets can be tracked before they even leave the staging area for the data center rack. This provides organizations with an accurate inventory that can be interrogated when responding to incidents, migrating workloads or deploying more compute power. Location-based information can be combined with other key attributes captured in DCIM solutions, such as capacity utilization and power consumption, to provide even greater intelligence - and even greater business value.
As 451 Research cites: “Increasingly, operational data is being integrated with asset management databases, or vice versa, so that the manager is able to both spot and analyze problems, and see exactly which equipment is involved, where it is located, what its operational characteristics are, and which circuit it is connected to.”
Lowering the heat on IT and facilities
Visibility of environmental conditions is also vital to identifying, resolving and preventing problems in the data center. DCIM places considerable emphasis on controlling environmental factors, such as humidity, airflow and temperature – all of which can impact not only availability but also efficiency and sustainability. To gain real-time insight into such factors, DCIM solutions need real-time data. Enter stage left, the wire-free sensor. These sensors can be polled at a pre-determined frequency to help DCIM solutions build a thermal map of the data center.
When the sensor detects a material change in temperature, humidity or airflow, the DCIM solution can be configured to generate an automated alert to IT and facilities personnel. This advanced warning could be enough to prevent a data center hot-spot from spiraling into a full-scale outage.
As well as enabling a faster response to potentially damaging environmental conditions, thermal sensing data can be used to drive continuous improvement. For example, organizations can use DCIM solutions to visualize how data center environmentals and energy consumption might be impacted by changing asset
locations or decreasing cooling levels. These ‘what if’ scenarios enable IT and facilities departments to validate changes before taking any action within the live data center environment, which can not only save time but also reduce risk.
With DCIM providing visibility and functionality to both IT and facilities, it can act as an enabler for uniting these two traditionally disparate groups – and their asset inventories.
Instead of relying on disjointed IT and facilities systems, organizations can use DCIM to not only consolidate asset information but also enrich it. This intelligence can then be shared with all data center stakeholders, including not only front-line managers but also CXOs.
Section 3
A Recipe for Greater Success
The data center and its assets can never be separated. With greater intelligence on both, organizations will be able to achieve greater operational excellence and greater business value.
Capacity: By discovering every asset and then tracking utilization via a DCIM solution, organizations can
ensure they are making the most of existing capacity. As a result, they can prevent unnecessary expenditure on additional assets and data center space – perhaps even a new facility. As business demand increases, IT departments can use DCIM to quickly identify available resources to host new workloads and ensure that any changes don’t have an adverse effect on the delicate thermal balance in the data center.
Key asset management questions to ask before selecting a DCIM solution
1. How are assets and their associated connectivity discovered?
2. Is it possible to categorize assets into certain groups to aid reporting? 3. Will disparate asset data be converted into standard formats?
4. Are asset moves and changes automatically captured?
5. Can supplementary asset data, for example warranty status or configuration, be integrated from other management systems?
6. Is it possible to set asset performance thresholds that trigger automated alerts when breached?
7. Can energy consumption be tracked back to an individual device? 8. What thermal conditions can be monitored in an asset’s surroundings? 9. Can the location of each asset be visualized in a 3-D representation?
10. Is it possible to model ‘what if’ scenarios involving changes to assets or data center environmentals?
Availability: With better asset intelligence, organizations can not only resolve problems faster, they can
prevent them from happening in the first place. DCIM solutions enable IT and facilities departments to put data center problems into context by providing visibility of the assets involved and their performance along with associated environmental conditions and power consumption levels. All of this means one thing: less downtime and less business disruption.
Efficiency: Organizations can make significant efficiency gains just by taking an automated approach to
asset management. For example by deploying real-time asset sensors, CME Group halved the time it spends on asset audits while also improving audit accuracy by 30 per cent.6 When these improvements are
extended across every facet of data center management, then the time and resource savings will be even greater. By using DCIM solutions to drill down into power consumption at an asset level, IT and facilities departments can identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency. A Fortune 500 electronics distributor reported five-year cost savings of $18 million and improved data center power efficiency by 10 percent by measuring CRAC device data from four sources, a building management system, Trendpoint EnerSure, Trendpoint EnviroCube and Vigilent, and consolidating the data points into a unified system.
Sustainability: Optimizing the thermal conditions of the data center doesn’t only reduce costs; it also
reduces the overall environmental footprint. By combing asset intelligence with DCIM, IT and facilities departments can generate the metrics they need to maximize the sustainability credentials of the data center and meet best practice guidelines from the likes of ASHRAE and the Green Grid. With organizations increasingly exposed to environmental regulations and sustainability mandates, a ‘greener’ data center can help to reduce risk and improve brand reputation.
Without real-time visibility of the date center, organizations will be constantly looking at yesterday’s menu. And that means they will always be one step away from operational excellence - and one step behind the competition. As 451 Research confirms: “The best-run data centers are those where managers have accurate and meaningful information about their data center’s assets, resource use and operational status – from the lowest level of the facility infrastructure to the higher echelons of the IT stack.”7
Reducing data center energy costs and consumption
There are more than 1,000 assets in the main CA Technologies datacenter, which is critical to maintaining the profitability and productivity of the entire business.
To ensure the performance of these assets is not impacted by detrimental thermal conditions, the IT team has deployed more than 700 wire-free sensors. The sensors, from RF Code, provide real-time visibility of humidity and temperature across the data center. With CA Data Center Infrastructure Management (CA DCIM), the team will be able to set thermal thresholds that trigger automated alerts when hot or cold spots are detected.
CA Technologies has already been able to eliminate the need for biannual CFD testing. Instead of waiting several weeks for tests results that would often already be out of date, the IT team now knows the exact thermal state of the data center at any given moment – even if there is no-one actually on-site. It can also model how changes might impact heating and cooling.
Thanks to this visibility, CA Technologies identified it was over-cooling the datacenter, which has resulted in $100,000 in savings per year and a 10-fold increase in energy efficiency.
Section 4:
Conclusions
As the asset footprint in the data center continues to expand, today’s operational challenges will only exacerbate, resulting in yet more cost and complexity for both IT and facilities departments. Doing nothing is no longer an option. By combining greater asset intelligence with DCIM, organizations can ensure their data center is not only fit for purpose but also fit for the future. They can tap into idle capacity. They can maintain higher availability. They can achieve greater efficiency. And they will be ready when business demands come calling.
Section 5:
About the Authors
Dhesi Ananchaperumal, Distinguished Engineer and SVP, Engineering, Infrastructure Management Solutions, CA Technologies
Dhesikan Ananchaperumal is a member of the CA Council for Technical Excellence. He is responsible for leading and overseeing the day-to-day activities of the engineering team of Infrastructure Management Solutions business unit - products include: CA Performance Management, CA Mediation Manager, CA Spectrum®, CA DCIM and CA Capacity Manager, CA eHealth®. Dhesi was awarded the designation of Distinguished Engineer (DE), in this role he provides guidance to executive leadership on the introduction of new technologies and mentorship to engineering community and counsel in driving the implementation of new architectures, products and solutions to ensure innovation, integration and customer value. An industry veteran with an expertise in IT Infrastructure and Energy Management, Dhesi has published numerous white papers and articles and is a frequent speaker at Data Center and IT conferences. Prior to his current role, Dhesi was involved with Emerging Technologies, Business Relationship Management and M&A activities for CA. Prior to joining CA, Dhesi held various management and technology positions at Netegrity, Affinnova, AMS and Infosys Technologies. Dhesi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering, a Master’s degree in Computer Science and a Master’s degree in Electronics Design Technology from the Center for Electronics Design Technology, India. Dhesi also has ISC2-CISSP, Six Sigma and ITIL certifications.
Richard Jenkins, VP, Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, RF Code
Richard Jenkins joined RF Code in 2012 and brings over 21 years of management and international marketing of small and large IT, media and investment organizations. Prior to joining RF Code, Jenkins was instrumental in the launch and growth of a number of IT, cleantech and media organizations while CEO of Performedia International. From 2007, he served as Senior Vice President of an international cleantech investment firm, Kyoto Planet, where he launched a publishing company, built an international network of business, political and science leaders, and led the company’s business development group. Prior to this, Jenkins held the position of Vice President International Development at Corporate Radar (later acquired by Microsoft) after developing the global business partner marketing strategy for Crystal Decisions and Business Objects. Jenkins also spent four years setting up the IBM/Tivoli partner channels in EMEA and Asia Pacific during which time he led the launch of new mid-market products achieving 179% of targets in the first two years. He then moved to Austin, TX, to manage global partner marketing. In 1995, Jenkins launched an IT consulting organization in the UK which was later acquired by GE Capital IT Solutions. Jenkins has lived and worked in Europe, Asia, the US and Canada.
CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) creates software that fuels transformation for companies and enables them to seize the opportunities of the application economy. Software is at the heart of every business, in every industry. From planning to development to management and security, CA is working with companies worldwide to change the way we live, transact and communicate – across mobile, private and public cloud, distributed and mainframe environments. Learn more at ca.com.
1 Worldwide Data Center Infrastructure Management 2013-2017 Forecast, IDC, September 2013 2 http://public.brighttalk.com/resource/core/24831/ca-webinar_making_dcim_work-for-you_pdf_37029.pdf 3 http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Six-datacentre-resolutions-IT-must-make-and-stick-to-in-2013
4 http://blogs.forrester.com/richard_fichera/13-01-21-on_the_road_with_dcim_affirmation_embellishment_of_our_underlying_thesis 5 Next-generation Data Center Management, 451 Research, January 2014
6 IAITAM CXO Executive Conference, Houston, TX, April 2013 7 Next-generation Data Center Management, 451 Research, January 2014
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