Operate at full throttle

Spencer Davies, RiT Tech’s UK and European sales manager, explains how adopting automation to manage asset moves and changes can dodge the data center equivalent of airport delays.

As arguments for giving due consideration to cause and effect go, the chaotic scenes that greeted thousands of would-be travellers at London Heathrow this summer proved particularly compelling.

Long queues, cancelled and capped flights, and lost luggage marred many a holiday memory as the major international hub creaked under the considerable pressure of post-Covid pent-up demand and the consequences of pessimistic forecasting.

The disruption and dashed plans – which are still the focus of a blame game being played out by airlines and Heathrow’s operators – highlight the complexities and interdependencies associated with the aviation industry, in which unchecked or unexpected changes can severely hamper the prospect of getting passengers above the clouds in an efficient manner.

The perils of poor planning and provisioning are equally pertinent to those data centers tasked with keeping business services and operations afloat. Just like airports, the hi-tech homes to networking ports are dynamic and ever evolving environments. 

Any additions, moves or changes to IT assets can have a knock-on effect – be it on a rack, row, zone, room or entire facility – by impacting on the space, power and cooling available to other entities.

To pull plugs or fill ports without first considering consequential ripples can quickly send a data center’s digital dominos tumbling and are not actions that should be taken in isolation.

Calculations and consultation are key to optimising operations and are tasks that can be automated and comprehensively considered with the touch of a button using XpedITe.

RiT Tech’s Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM) tool offers a major step change from traditional Data Center Infrastructure Management approaches by capturing the role of every asset – and its inter-dependencies – to afford users a real-time, 360-degree view of their operations.

It integrates with legacy systems to bridge the gaps between ‘grey’ and ‘white’ space and, exploiting advanced algorithms, can plan installations and forecast risks, automate ongoing processes and operational workflows as well as manage the lifecycle of equipment and resource utilisation.

Designed to optimise its environment, the next-generation solution will signpost the best location for any new hardware by assessing its manufacturer’s specifications and cross-checking this information with available capacity – be it physical space and weight load, power or cooling. 

XpedITe is far more than just a prime position finder, however, as it can take care of the actual provisioning of asset additions and moves – from stock management to the diarising of installations.

Through the standardisation of workflows, it not only allocates what is needed and where but allots responsibility for actions; informing all relevant parties who needs to do what and when.

Had Heathrow and those firms operating from its runways benefited from such orchestration, the airport and airlines would have been celebrating a return to heady heights rather than ruing a reduced capacity at a time of high demand.

About the author

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Regional Sales Manager (UK & Europe) for global DCIM provider, RiT Tech. Responsible for delivering on the vision of XpedITe, an award winning software solution for data centres.