Author
James Sherrin
The data center, like all things in IT, continues to evolve at an accelerated rate. The challenges of yesterday -- big data, redundancy for mission critical systems, power constraints and more -- are giving way to new opportunities.
The new wave includes the:
- Internet of Things
- Challenge of moving content closer the consumer
- Migration of traditional core enterprise applications to the cloud (i.e., productivity, mail, CRM and data storage)
- Maturation of the software defined network
As evolution happens, the benefits of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software must also evolve to help organizations transition from the data center of yesterday to become relevant in the new data center of tomorrow.
CommScope is helping companies make the transition with the latest version of iTRACS DCIM. 451 Research, a leading research and advisory company, reviewed CommScope’s latest iTRACS DCIM offering and provided a positive outlook. 451 Research states that CommScope is poised for growth in the DCIM space, citing mature and strong connectivity management, improved usability and capacity management, as well as its expanded portfolio and feature set as strong areas. Let’s focus on three items highlighted in the report: connectivity management, a growing partner ecosystem and capacity forecasting.
Connectivity Management
Connectivity management for power and network is frequently an area under reported within DCIM. For many organizations, especially the traditional enterprise data center, connectivity management can mean the difference between a system failing over successfully with no disruption or an upset customer and lost revenues.
For organizations transitioning applications out of the enterprise to an edge-style data center, tying connectivity into asset, virtual machine and application management can help simplify migration. Decommissioning of services in a controlled and easily understood manner reduces risk and ensures service availability.
Growing Partner Ecosystem
Enabling partners like an SI to assist organizations leverage and tie DCIM into multiple systems has been, and will be, increasingly important to customers looking for a DCIM solution. The jigsaw of data center management is becoming increasing complex. The lines between the physical and the logical environments are blending so much, it is sometimes impossible to tell the two apart. Strong integration tools and a strong partner community can help organizations maximize their existing infrastructure investments and manage the transition as they move to a colocation or edge data center configuration.
Capacity Forecasting
Finally, while that transition to an edge data center will eventually happen, companies might need to maximize their existing infrastructure investment for a few years. iTRACS DCIM’s new CapacityView feature can help, allowing users to leverage historical data to help understand the mix of power, cooling, network and space. CapacityView also allows users to see traditional historical changes, but also make event-based changes such as a freeze during the holiday shopping season. This provides the user with an improved understanding of when the existing data center is at capacity, or to help justify the transition from the traditional enterprise data center model to a containerized or colocation hosted edge solution.
To download the complete 451 Research, click here.
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