DCIM: Embrace or Bury?

As part of the annual London DCW event, Mark Acton, of RiT Tech hosted a panel entitled “DCIM: Embrace of Bury?” It was intended to get the opinions of the panel and the delegates in the room as to where we are with DCIM, and whether we need to start to look for something else.

The latest from the DCW panel 12 March 2020

The panellists were Emma Fryer (TechUK), Alan Beresford (Eco-Cooling),Venessa Moffat (RiT Tech) and Paul Milburn (Ekkosense).

When asked for a one-line description of what a DCIM is, there were four different answers, which probably goes to show, that the concept is not quite at a maturity level that it needs to be, even after a decade of installations.

 It was also largely agreed that to date that general DCIM systems have failed to deliver on the promises made.

The key components of a DCIM represented a good discussion with the group. There seems to be no argument that a DCIM system should include Facilities, Connectivity and IT stack, where previously some (if not most) products in the market have not achieved this. Capacity planning came up as a big function of any DCIM system, as did asset management, thermal control and operational efficiency in general.

At this point, our now honorary panellist, David Dawson from Kharon-IT observed that the panel so far had used the word integration a mere 36 times already. The discussion moved towards whether DCIM should be all things to all men, which in the main, the room thought it shouldn’t be. Rather, DCIM should be the glue that connects all the other business systems and provides a single pain of glass showing what’s important to the various types of users. Paul from Ekkosense observed that there are analytics for the techies, but at the moment not useful dashboards for the business executive who doesn’t want to delve into the detail of the DCIM application.

There was general consensus in the room that the IT stack should be integrated in some way, and that DCIM systems should also connect to other business systems, such as CMDB, ERP, Finance systems. It was also recognized that Facilities, IT and ‘the business’ work on different timescales, but also that currently don’t work well together. A DCIM implementation should be a catalyst in getting all the stakeholders to work together around core business processes that involve people, IT and assets.

Technology in general is entwined in day to day business, and should not be seen as a cost, but rather as an opportunity to create competitive advantage. Business goals and processes can be facilitated using technology and efficient data centres, and conversely business risks and technology risks can be minimised by using solutions such as DCIM.

The DNIO concept builds on the foundations of DCIM, and addresses the three major challenges that IT and Data Centre leaders face today:

1. Increasingly complex, inter-connected, hybrid environments becoming difficult to manage.
2. Up-time and availability risk for smooth DC Operations.
3. Efficiency and cost reduction for maximum business agility.
4. Increasing number of data sources and complexity of data.
5. Moving towards automation and AI within the data centre.

As pioneers in Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) and intelligent connectivity, and more recently in facilities and IT management, RiT Tech have brought these areas of expertise together, focusing on feedback from multinational clients. Areas such as asset management, integration, speed to implement, and time to value have been common areas of complaint for traditional DCIM users.

DNIO addresses these complaints and takes a data-centric approach, which allows flexibility and fully bespoke configurations, that deliver maximum efficiency via full-stack integration in an open framework.

Find out more about RiT's DNIO solution here. The metamorphosis of DCIM.

The final thoughts.... What will DCIM look like in 5 years' time?

Paul – “More Analytics, offering solutions rather than just raw data.”

Venessa – “Invisible like Visa, and connected to everything.”

Alan – “More useful information and intelligent monitoring rather than just a data repository.”

Emma – “More Ability to collect and collate useful information.”

Dave – “More process and business integration through a ‘Single pane of Glass’”.

Leveraging extensive experience in providing converged IT infrastructure management and intelligent connectivity solutions, RiT Tech offer an evolved offering.

DNIO (Datacentre, Network & Infrastructure Orchestration). This full-stack, open-framework solution takes the Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) concept to its metamorphosis, capable of delivering higher levels of business agility.