RiT Tech Newsletter - Autumn 2023

Autumn 2023
The Year So Far

FOREWARD

While 2023 has been rich in business breakthroughs and success for RiT Tech, as the year edges to a close it is impossible not to reflect on the past months with an incredibly heavy heart.

On Saturday 7th October, Hamas inflicted the cruellest of blows on Israel, humanity and all those around the world that hold dear the right for people to live in peace and without fear of terrorist attacks.

The barbaric acts of that day are now burned into the history books, never to be forgotten, and will forever remain beyond comprehension. More than 1,400 innocent lives were lost – taken, without just reason, in an unimaginably cruel way. Homes were destroyed, dreams and hopes were deleted, and hundreds of families will never be reunited.

Time is often said to be a great healer but for many, the clock can’t even begin ticking. In addition to those killed, 239 people – among them babies, children and the elderly – were dragged from their homes and beds and remain, separated from loved ones, as hostages in Gaza. Until they are returned, it is impossible for any healing to take place.

Israel is no stranger to adversity and, despite being rocked to its very core, will stay strong, do all that it can to look after its people and remain ‘open for business’. And at RiT Tech we will follow her lead – our commitment to caring for our employees, their families, and our customers around the world remains resolute.

2023 - RiT Tech's BUSINESS SUMMARY

As a business 2023 has been a resounding success, from award wins to new ISO certifications and of course our new product development success through XpedITe – a marketing leading data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform.

Three years ago, we had the vision to change the perception of DCIM and promote a new model that allows multiple integrations that address the real needs of data center operators and their supply chains. In this newsletter, we will be exploring this new model, namely Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM), highlighting the exciting progress that tools like ours have made in making DCIM an integral part of data center operators' IT and operations infrastructure toolset.

One of the most topical challenges that UIIM will be addressing is the reporting of sustainability. In July 2023 the Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2023 detailed the challenges operators will face in the collecting and reporting of sustainability-related data, and the calculation of related metrics. Without a unified data platform, many operators will struggle to meet the non-financial reporting requirements this coming January – for their own obligations and those of their customers.

As the CEO of RiT Tech, I am incredibly proud of what our hard-working team has achieved for us and for the industry. XpedITe is the only DCIM platform on the market that has the possibility of meeting regulatory requirements such as CSRD. We have also recently secured ISO27001 which was an important move in our own infrastructure strategy.

With all of this, we are looking forward to a successful 2024, one which brings peace and prosperity to the world.

XpedITe, the platform ‘a single source of truth’ is built on.

TOP FIVE features:

Automated Provisioning

Discover how this unique functionality is providing efficiency, reliability in daily provisioning planning and operations, time and money savings, reducing risks and human errors and aligning provisioning with company processes and procedures. XpedITe's AI based AUTOMATED PROVISIONING engine can provide insight into optimum locations, full network path and related work orders for complex provisioning criteria at any data center environment and network topologies, reducing provisioning planning effort from hours to minutes.

Interactive Traces

XpedITe's INTERACTIVE TRACE functionality provides real-time visibility of the entire data center operations, network, and power infrastructure.

As part of connectivity management, XpedITe's Interactive Trace functionality is the perfect tool to understand and manage the entire data center connectivity (both network and power), plan changes and troubleshoot issues quickly.

Impact Analysis

Stay one step ahead with this XpedITe feature designed for both IT and M&E equipment. It provides operators with the ability to analyze the impact of equipment failure, whether in the network or as part of the power distribution chain. The IMPACT ANALYSIS function creates risk mitigation and contingency plans, ensures redundancy, understands physical and logical relationships, resulting in problem-solving quickly and SLA compliance improvements.

Warehouse Provisioning

Among the new features of the WAREHOUSE PROVISIONING MODULE, XpedITe is connecting the dots by unifying warehouse management and change, leaving behind the process of inefficient spreadsheets. Connect all company’s processes for sustainable retirement/replacement to both provisioning and decommissioning within XpedITe’s workflows. Retired equipment that is returned to the warehouse, can be moved to different zones for reuse or recycling and destruction, optimizing resource utilization and control.

Custom Workflows

The flexibility to create CUSTOMIZED WORKFLOWS improves team interoperability, providing an engagement tool for your teams to work together more effectively with complete visibility of the data center activities, whether maintenance, physical/logical security, IMAC, LCM, or any other activity included in the organization's processes and policies. Process automation and integration with third party systems, such CMMS, CMDB, ITSM, and their unification in a single tool, making this feature highly valued by our clients.

What's Changed In The Past Year For XpedITe?

New Product Enhancements

XpedITe is continuously improving to meet our customer requirements. It is the only platform on the market that can be customized and manage multiple integrations. This year we have introduced two popular features:

NEW FEATURE! Warehouse Provisioning:

In our continuous evolution of XpedITe capabilities, XpedITe’s Warehouse Provisioning module now offers the ability to create and manage warehouse items. Spare parts or equipment are managed in the warehouse at the start and end point of their lifecycle. Warehouse is connected to other company’s processes such as purchasing/logistic or sustainable retirement/replacement and both provisioning and decommissioning XpedITe’s workflows are connected accordingly. Warehouse sections can also be created and the operator can move devices to different areas, such as test lab, pre-production or the disposal bin.

To find out more about this exciting feature:

NEW FEATURE! Custom Workflow Definition Enhancements:

Expanding the traditional IMAC process without boundaries. Increase your teams operational efficiency, reduce risks and improve compliance management by defining your own workflows in the XpedITe platform and obtain the benefits of automation by integrating them with other software systems. We've made it even easier and more flexible to create custom workflows tailored to the different teams and equipment needs, internal policies and compliance and can be integrated to other corporate tools. With this enhanced feature, workflows can be defined for different types of maintenance, LCM tasks, physical and logical security, and much more. In summary, our custom workflow definition enhancements provide greater flexibility and efficiency in managing your projects keeping everything under control from the IT to the M&E equipment.

To find out more about how we have transformed work order management:

Solving the CSRD Puzzle
We’re going to help you piece it all together

An interview with Jeff Safovich,

Chief Technology Officer

Imagine you’re handed a complex jigsaw puzzle. Some pieces shimmer with clarity, while others are faded, mismatched, or downright deceptive. The grand picture is the future of sustainability in the European Data Center landscape. But fret not, intrepid puzzler, for we’re here to help you piece it all together.

In this article by RiT Tech's Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Safovich uses the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle to reflect on how the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has changed the game for non-financial reporting in data centers.

Understanding it is one thing, collaborating to make it happen is something entirely different...

Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM)
A New Methodology for DCIM

An interview with Antonio Suárez Garcia,

Global Product Development

For this latest newsletter, we interviewed Antonio, one of RiT Tech’s talented product development leads on the concept of Universal Intelligent Infrastructure Management (UIIM) - an innovative approach to taking DCIM to the next level.

Since 2020, our product team has been enhancing XpedITe to enable multiple integrations and provide one federated platform of useful data that can monitor, manage and report on all layers within the data center.

About UIIM

UIIM will provide framework and a multi-faceted view of all the activity that is taking place in the data center facility including the basic space, power and cooling resources but far more as it integrates with the IT equipment and networks assets down to individual ports and cables.

For the full article on the progress made in just one year:

A Thirst for Innovation? (ATFI?) What's next?
“We’re on the precipice of an evolution. Those that succeed will pioneer change, rather than be disrupted by it.”

This year ATFI? has proved to be invaluable to the industry’s leaders. Throughout the year, big names in managed services and Europe’s pre-eminent data center operations have come together to drive the education of important topics such as CSRD and the onerous task of reporting.

On the 18th January 2024, we will be presenting the outcome of our roundtable event where over 30 professionals came together to discuss three themes, make sure you registered for your place!

The topics we will discuss include:

ESG REPORTING - How do we provide accurate information to enable transparency and integrity that protects the reputation of the data center brand and allow access to European sustainable funding?

BETTER MI - How do we ensure the accuracy and availability of management information and how it plays a critical role in data center operations?

PRACTICAL CHALLENGES - How can we better understand both customer and management issues to develop fit-for-purpose management information solutions with predictive capabilities?

PLATINUM SPONSORS

We’re setting the standards for data center industry

Setting the standards and maintaining them is paramount for our customers. We take pride in our commitment to excellence, and we have the credentials to prove it. With a legacy of quality and innovation spanning several years, we have established ourselves as a progressive, trusted and award-winning pioneer in the industry.

Our most recent achievement, the ISO 27001 certification, is a testament to our unwavering commitment to information security. This internationally recognized standard validates that RiT Tech has implemented a robust Information Security Management System (ISMS).

It demonstrates our dedication to safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. Achieving ISO 27001 showcases our proactive approach to identifying and mitigating security risks, making RiT Tech a secure partner for your data center and infrastructure management requirements.

Full article available on our website:

Mark Acton, Business Strategy & Technology Director

Led the DCA 10x10 to highlight the benefits of accurate and transparent reporting tools for data center operators

Entitled “The sustainability benefits of standards-based environmental management and reporting through innovative monitoring and management tools”, it was a timely session with customers and regulators both putting pressure on operators to ensure transparent and auditable reporting. Mark focused the session on the potentially labour-intensive issues that will come as a consequence of satisfying both regulatory and market reporting demands without significantly increasing resource overheads.

Throughout the presentation, Mark provided valuable insights into the latest sustainability legislation and showcased how DCIM tools, like RiT Tech’s XpedITe platform can support data center operators in their quest for a coherent and federated platform, bringing together multiple data sets to provide a holistic view of the data center’s performance to enable standards-based reporting.

When asked for a quote to sum up the day, Mark highlights that “Now is the right time for data centre owners and operators to recognise that new DCIM tools and non-traditional vendors offer cost effective solutions to the resource overhead issues they are facing with regard to both regulatory and customer ESG reporting requirements and operational efficiency. There are new innovative solutions out there, please explore their potential.”