Say Goodbye To Data Center Downtime

There’s a quiet revolution going on in your data center. Labeled Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM), it represents what can be achieved when IT and data  center facilities functions converge. Properly done, DCIM can take energy efficiency to the next level, optimize physical equipment layouts, improve strategic planning and enhance resource availability.

DCIM is also not alone. The emergence of new IT trends—cloud computing, data center consolidation and the increased dependence on IT to drive business growth and profits—are offering strong tailwinds. Together, they are propelling many businesses to turn their data centers into profit centers.

According to industry research firm Markets and Markets, this trend is becoming big business. It estimates that the global DCIM will grow from US $307 million in 2011 to a whopping US $3.14 billion in 2017—a compound annual growth rate of over 47 percent. Banks, with petabytes of data sitting in their massive data centers, are expected to be prime adopters. For them, the promise of productivity, business agility and cost efficiency makes perfect ROI sense.

That is the reason why DCIM has become a favorite four-letter acronym for many leading players. And it is not just vendors, but even telecommunication players, infrastructure providers and even countries are drumming up the mantra. Players including Google, NTT Communications and China Mobile have now confirmed that their new data centers in Hong Kong will adopt DCIM solutions. Meanwhile, with Hong Kong SAR Government touting data center-focused benefits, the adoption of DCIM will only accelerate.

Despite the hype surrounding DCIM, one true benefit stands above the rest—the ability to say goodbye to “downtime.” In fact, downtime may even become an extinct IT vocabulary term in data centers within the next five years using proper DCIM. How can this be? The answer lies in intelligent networks. They offer CIOs the power to deliver “always on” networks reliably, sustainably, intelligently, and in a returns-focused boardroom environment.

Today, network intelligence can begin right in the hardware. For example, advanced panels offer a trace button and LED for every port, while next generation racks, like the SYSTIMAX® 360 iPatch® G2 High-Density Fiber Shelf, allow alpha/beta module polarity orientation to be auto-detected and reported to management software.

Management software that is designed ground up with data centers in mind, like the SYSTIMAX 360 iPatch Panel Manager, allows granular port management. These allow data center IT professionals to conduct true end-to-end connectivity management by quickly tracing existing connections, isolating issues before they become problems, and improving availability.

Such DCIM solutions offer a 20/20 visual clarity of your physical infrastructure inside your data center, granular management control and real-time information on the health of your infrastructure. Soon with automation, management can be streamlined and optimized according to business needs and SLAs. These translate into better ROI, improved utilization and increased business agility—three factors that speak volumes in today’s highly competitive and challenging market environment.