A time to trust?

It is common for emerging technologies to be treated with a degree of trepidation, but XpedITe – RiT Tech’s cutting-edge network infrastructure and operations management system – has the credentials to immediately address DCIM disillusionment and transform attitudes towards automation in data centres.

In a relatively short space of time, society as a whole has grown to trust – and take for granted – technology.

Take, for example, the satellite-navigation systems found in most modern vehicles. In the not-too-distant past, route planners were regarded with a high degree of scepticism by drivers, who – unconvinced by their gadget’s credentials – would often double check advice against a physical map or even simply dismiss any directions and diversions delivered in a digital voice.

Over time, however, there has been a U-turn in attitudes. Humans have learned to cherish their in-car companions, appreciating their ability to avoid lengthy delays caused by accidents ahead and up-to-date knowledge of city centre congestion.

More often than not, people now pop in a postcode and blindly trust their sat-nav to get them to where they need to be. This journey to acceptance has been achieved in part by drivers being reassured by positive experiences of the technology, but also through machine learning.

Proficient systems assess habits, building an understanding of where a driver deviates from instruction and adapts its route planning accordingly. Similarly, smartphones have become a relied upon source of information. Doubts over the fidelity of Siri’s weather forecasting have long since evaporated and, more significantly, people expect to be able to ask their phone a question and have it respond.

This capability is again driven by machine learning and depends on a high-performance infrastructure in a data centre to deliver it.

Perversely, it is in the places responsible for meeting this ever-growing demand that trust in automation is at its most brittle.

Despite the abundant benefits to business of having a smart system that increases availability by reducing the severity and duration of outages, data centres have historically dragged their heels when it comes to showing faith in allowing computing platforms to map, monitor and optimise operations.

Why? Because early iterations of Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions were expensive to procure and frequently led “drivers” down dead ends and failed to produce the sunny outlooks promised.

XpedITe, however, is turning the tide. Designed and delivered as a managed service by automated infrastructure specialist RiT Tech, the next-generation data centre, network, infrastructure and operations management system has the requisite resume to restore trust.

Integrating with existing company processes, XpedITe is a dependable co-driver that can be relied on to provide an accurate and real-time view of a data centre’s direction of travel and to navigate away from any unnecessary downtime.

It simplifies the complex tasks of configuration management and network migration – optimising current set-ups while planning for over-the-horizon requirements and growth – and its continuous monitoring eliminates any flaws in detecting faults and remedying them.

Proficient in keeping the lights on at “dark” and staffed sites, XpedITe generates high-fidelity work orders that ensure engineers can quickly get things moving in the event of any breakdowns.

Consequently, investing in XpedITe is not a question of choosing to trust a technical solution, it is a simple economic decision, with faith repaid in tangible savings.