Datalink to Present at Data Center World Tuesday, April 30

By Datalink
4/25/2013

Next week is Data Center World where over 1,000 data center and facilities management professionals from around the globe will get together in one place -- Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with peers as this will be the third consecutive year I'll be presenting. This year's presentation, "Five Keys to a Successful Data Center Relocation," will focus on steps to ensure an incident-free data center move.

Last year, I gave a presentation about the importance of using a Data Center Infrastructure Management application, either for a data center relocation or as a tool for capacity planning and what to consider when choosing a software vendor.  The workshop was very well received and generated quite a bit of interest.

In case you didn't have a chance to attend last year, below summarizes key considerations for selecting DCIM software:

  1. Data Collection Process – Should the collection process be automated? Agentless? The process of discovery should uncover ALL network physical assets and should provide accurate data, faster implementation, and reduce audit time.
  2. Presentation Process – How is the information presented? Visually? The information shown should include: hotspot identification, optimal asset placement, connections, and power.
  3. Modeling Capabilities – What type of modeling capabilities does the software have? Does it offer “What if” scenarios? It should address changes in power, space, heating, and cooling.
  4. Control Process – How much automation is provided? What kind of scheduling capabilities are there? The software should improve service delivery, reduce server deployment time, and should enforce ITIL best practices.
  5. Management Capabilities – What management-level dashboards are provided – standard and user-defined? The tool should include a daily measurement of operations, robust asset management and reporting capabilities.
  6. Analysis Functions – The software should enable you to take a proactive stance to capacity planning, providing trend analysis to predict the lifespan of your datacenter. It should also include operational metrics for the entire datacenter including heat and cooling, space, and network connections.

Hope to see you at this year's conference starting April 28th. And join me Tuesday, April 30th at 1:15 in Palm B when I'll share DCR tips and truths that I've learned over the last twenty years in the business.

If you can't make the conference, email me at bcardos@datalink.com for a copy of the presentation or for more information.

Bruce W. Cardos, PMP
Datalink Principal Consultant, Data Center Relocation Services