Data Center Management

Infrastructure management relies heavily on information. This information must be complete, accurate, have audit capability, and provide an integration layer in order for any maintenance management solution to be viable. PTS can make sense of this information, and can provide complete and integrated operational maintenance management for data center facilities and the related support infrastructure.

PTS’ data center facility and support infrastructure maintenance management services have the following goals:

• Extend the lifecycle for all support infrastructure
• Track maintenance details
• Prevent equipment failures
• Improve labor productivity
• Reduce equipment downtime
• Optimize spare/replacement parts inventory
• Lower the total cost of data center maintenance

To this end, PTS takes the following approach:

• Assign an experienced, PTS-trained, facility maintenance team to the project
• Gather all existing information relevant to site and equipment maintenance
• Refine the current data center facility maintenance plan
• Setup access and alerts from existing instrumentation & monitoring platforms as well as furnish and install a PTS SNMP-based monitoring and management platform
• Recommend new monitoring instrumentation where gaps exist
• Implement PTS’ SaaS-based Data Center Maintenance Management Software (DCMMS) tool
• Implement 7x24x365 NOC-based monitoring service
• Provide ongoing and predictable data center facility maintenance management with alert/alarm response and escalation
  • The actual maintenance of the equipment is typically performed by 3^rd party organizations specializing in the particular equipment or system under a pre-negotiated contracts
• Provide quarterly status reports and participate in annual, onsite, strategic management meetings to review and forecast maintenance activities

From a cost stand-point, it depends on the following factors…

• What is the size of the facility?
• How much infrastructure needs to be managed?
• How complete is the current maintenance plan?
• What is/are the current and future state of the monitoring platform(s)?
• What are the maintenance contracts that are currently in place?
• What level of on-site/off-site PTS management is required?

With regards to data center maintenance management, PTS President and Founder Peter Sacco has contributed Chapter 34: “Computerized Maintenance Management System in Data Centers” to Hwaiyu Geng’s The Data Center Handbook (Now available from Amazon.com)

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Solutions

Whether you are migrating to newer facility or IT technologies, relocating your data center, or planning for future facility improvements, Data Center Management or Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) products and solutions can accurately predict asset performance levels to achieve optimum operational efficiency by providing comprehensive information and feedback regarding the state of the data center.

A Comprehensive Data Center Management View

Data Center Management solutions provide managers with the ability to perform a variety of tasks. As a consultancy providing a Complete View of Your Data Center: Integrating IT and Facilities, PTS is unique and comprehensive in its view of Data Center Management tools. For Data Center Management, PTS includes eleven (11) categories:

• Asset Management Provide database tracking of IT and/or support (facility) infrastructure assets which may or may not include auto discovery and change management
• Asset Location Management Provide automated physical location tracking of IT and/or support (facility) infrastructure assets.
• Real-Time Monitoring Provide hardware and/or software for automated real-time data capture of temperature, humidity, power, security, leak detection, camera surveillance, etc.
•  Energy Management Provide automated real-time data analysis of energy usage for IT and/or supporting infrastructure resulting in PUE trending.
• Capacity Planning Provide real-time data analysis for space, power, and cooling capacity planning.
• Optimization Management Provide IT performance versus available resource analysis.
• Documentation Management Provide online document retention, management, and control.
• Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Modeling Provide dynamic airflow and temperature modeling for predictive analysis of cooling systems performance.
• Maintenance Management Provide maintenance management including scheduling, service history, entitlement tracking, cost analysis, etc.
• Power Connectivity Management Provide power connectivity management in device hierarchical manner.
• Data Connectivity Management Provide data connectivity management in device hierarchical manner.

Although the Holy Grail for Data Center Management or DCIM solutions is to have a fully integrated Data Center Management platform, current manufacturer solutions typically provide one or several, but not all, of the capabilities listed above. Rather, it is critical for data center operational managers to consider how to acquire, integrate, and leverage multiple manufacturer solutions across the spectrum of data center management requirements.

Robust, integrated platforms in the Data Center Management space typically include a base software solution with a data center visualization capability. After that, options may include automated asset locator capabilities, capacity planning, maintenance management, etc. Before a purchase is made, it is imperative to take a holistic approach to management and operational requirements. PTS helps clients make a good value judgment and deploy appropriate solutions which meet client data center management requirements.