16 March 2023
Herman Chan, president, Sunbird Software
Today’s leading organizations rely heavily on data centers to provide their digital services and applications. It’s critical that these data centers are monitored and managed properly to ensure business continuity.
However, the legacy management tools still used today like Excel, Visio, and first-generation DCIM don’t cut it anymore. They are not designed to meet the complex needs of the enterprise.
Enterprise-class organizations need enterprise-class DCIM software that excels in these key areas:
1. Scalability to support you as you grow. Enterprises need a highly scalable DCIM solution to manage their vast global data center footprint. Look for a battle-tested tool designed for big data that can collect hundreds of data points per rack per minute for thousands of racks while accommodating hundreds of users without performance issues. DCIM software with unlimited sites, assets, and custom fields can easily scale to meet the unique needs of your growing organization.
2. Reliability to ensure smooth operations. Your users must have access to the information they need when they need it to effectively manage mission-critical infrastructure. Your DCIM software should offer high availability to operate continuously without failure and a hot standby option to provide system redundancy. Choose a DCIM tool that is professionally tested for quality assurance and developed by experienced engineers with reliability in mind.
3. Interoperability to work with what you have. Data center management traditionally requires many tools and a lot of manual effort. Your DCIM software should enable automation via integration with out-of-the-box connectors and APIs that automate data entry, eliminate swivel chair management, and streamline workflows between data center operations, facilities, and IT teams. Choose a vendor-agnostic DCIM solution that works with the hardware and software you already have and seamlessly integrates with your CMDB, ticketing, Dev Ops, BMS, and other systems.
4. Manageability to be easy to work with. Your DCIM software should provide granular, role-based access control to protect sensitive information and ensure compliance. Your tool should grant or restrict user access at any level from locations, rooms, and racks down to individual assets and custom fields, and it should support SAML 2, LDAP, and Active Directory. The upgrade process should be just as easy as upgrading your tablet or mobile phone with a self-installing single upgrade file.
5. Total cost of ownership that won’t break the bank. Your DCIM vendor should have honest, straightforward pricing instead of nickel and diming you after the initial purchase. Choose a DCIM provider with an all-inclusive, cabinet- or node-based licensing model that includes all features, APIs, integrations, plugins, and custom charts and reports. If you have different infrastructure deployment sizes spanning edge, colocation, retail, and IDF closets, look for a vendor with flexible usage licensing with a complete suite of capabilities vs. a la carte modules.
6. Partnership with a focus on customer success. Your DCIM vendor should go above and beyond to delight you at every step of your DCIM journey. Your expectations of your prospective providers should include a proof-of-concept, deployment roadmap, client manager, detailed statements of work, checklists, and post-implementation walkthroughs to ensure the success of your project. Focus on vendors that actively seek customer feedback on their product roadmap to ensure solves their pain points. Your vendor should have a robust user group program that provides demos of new and upcoming releases and roadmap discussions. The vendor should have an expansive knowledge base of online training materials plus a customer support team can prove their track record of delighting customers.
7. Security to protect your data. Your DCIM vendor should prioritize security in its software development and deployment process. The software engineers should be experienced with secure coding best practices and use state-of-the-art development and testing tools. Select a DCIM tool that undergoes regular vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to identify and address any potential security risks, and if a vulnerability is discovered, security fixes should be prioritized and addresses in the earliest possible maintenance release.
Enterprises need battle-tested, second-generation DCIM software that checks all the boxes. However, with so many options available, it can be challenging to determine the best fit for you.
To ensure success, leverage customer testimonials and case studies to narrow down your options to the most proven vendors, engage in a proof-of-concept process to test your use cases with your own data, ask for references in your industry or with similar use cases, and attend your prospective vendors’ user groups to see how they partner with customers to develop their solution.
Then, you will have the information you need to choose a reliable DCIM provider with your success in mind.
