The Data Center of the Future Begins and Ends with DCIM

The networking environment has changed drastically over the last decade and there seems to be no slowing down as consumption of data begins to move from static workstations to mobile devices with access everywhere at any time. This transformation of how people are doing business and are leveraging mobile computing devices such as phones and tablets is more than a game changer, it is a life changer.

This change is not only happening for the individual but also at the other end of the system, the Data Center. Mobile computing has its own challenges and issues, such as access, scalability and speed. As more and more information is used when and where it is required these issues are becoming a greater concern. Connection to the cloud (aka Data Centers) is the key to service.  According to http://www.statista.com/statistics/271405/global-mobile-data-traffic-forecast/ global mobile traffic is almost doubling per year, and the amount of Exabytes of information being shared per month will increase by 10X in the next 5 years from 2.5 to 24.3. That’s a lot of data.

Not only is data steadily increasing, but we have already experienced sporting and social seismic events which can impact systems radically in a short span of time. For example during the last Superbowl, 4.1 Terabytes of data were generated compared to the previous years of 1.7 Terabytes, according to http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizon-att-sprint-and-t-mobile-reveal-network-traffic-stats-super-bowl/2015-02-04. These spikes in usage require data systems to be flexible and scalable enough to handle “on demand” traffic. Capacity from a user perspective is now considered a given no matter where they are; expectations are that service should be everywhere and available at all times.  

In order to keep devices as user friendly and portable as possible, software is no longer being housed at its access point. Apps and virtual machines have taken over the bulk of processing within the network landscape and the SaaS model has allowed mobile devices to become flexible platforms and interfaces that can do almost anything. Enter the modern day Data Center, the brains behind this technological brawn. They are not only a facility to store, house and process information; but also a platform that needs to maintain scalability to deal with the influx of users accessing a given program at a single point of time.

The Data Centers main function in this scenario is to support the networking and data environment, while at the same time providing a suitable environment for the physical infrastructure. And since the nature of how we access and use data is changing, so to must our Data Centers. Data Centers are very complex environments that have many different components at both a facilities level as well as a networking level. One system impacts another, which makes scalability difficult to achieve. To sit down and draw out how a singular change in equipment sends ripples through the DC environment, would be like trying to count the ripples in a lake once you threw a boulder into the centre.

Each piece of hardware is unique in its power consumption, heat generation and cooling requirements and although you can guestimate its effect on an environment using the operational specification ranges, until you turn the unit on in a given environment you won’t know its impact. The closest you will be able to come to a projecting a Data Centers power, cooling and capacity, is in a virtual environment.

 Virtual environments allow you to build a data center without actually building a data center. You can run comparisons of different equipment, heat profiles, efficiency profiles, rack densities and even projected growth models that would take care of scalability. Making a Data Center as efficient as possible is the key to controlling the costs within a Data Center. Data Infrastructure Management (DCIMs) not only allow for extensive and comprehensive planning but also comparison of projected and real environmental offsets. 

In my opinion this is the only way anyone should be building Data Centers today. The granularity of facility data produced through the monitoring of a live data center allows the user to make intelligent decisions about power and cooling costs as well as tracking projected hardware change impacts. In essence we are actually comparing Data Centers without DCIM and those with DCIM. I am a numbers guy and that is the way I make personal financial decisions, and would also make business decisions. Without monitoring where money is being spent and how much on what, there is no hope of realizing the full potential of cost savings which can be achieved by fine tuning and optimizing the Data Center.

Just like we have SMART phones, we need SMART Data Centers to support them and that means DCIM.

Written by: Edgar Schuchardt

Account  Manager at Datcom Inc.

For more information on DCIM products call 1-800-427-2055