Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

Too busy to save time

The efficiency of data center management can be measured by the time and money wasted. In a recent survey, 200 data centre managers from the US and UK said that using tools such as data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions could make their jobs "easier, faster and more cost-effective".

If applying DCIM solutions can really save time and effectively reduce operating expenses, why does the survey find that 43% of data center managers still rely on manual methods to replace DCIM? What is the reason that hinders the application of DCIM?

No time or budget to implement DCIM

Intel commissioned Redshift research institutions to explore in-depth the methods and tools of capacity planning and forecasting used in data centers. The survey found that Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software is still popular, and nearly 10% of data center managers are still using the most traditional methods to calculate data center area expansion and layout adjustments. Only 55% of data center managers benefit from the use of DCIM management tools.

Surprisingly, manual methods are not just typical of small data centers. Even for large data centers with more than 1500 servers, the proportion of people using manual methods and data center infrastructure management tools was only 43:55 (2 per cent of the surveyed data centers were not sure which tools to use or did not do any planning or forecasting work).

What are the two most common reasons for not using DCIM management tools? Forty-six per cent of managers who do not use DCIM believe that the cost of implementing the programme is too high. Another 35 per cent of data center managers say they lack the resources to implement DCIM solutions.

Harvest

At first, the lack of budget and the resources and time for implementing the programme seemed to be the main culprits hindering the application of the DCIM programme. However, with the further deepening of the investigation, the truth about investing in DCIM solutions and their effects has been revealed at a deeper level.

The lack of DCIM tools leads to more time waste. Fifty-six percent of data center managers who rely on manual planning spend more than 40 percent of their time each month on capacity planning and forecasting.

DCIM tools can effectively reduce operating expenses. Among the users who use DCIM, 63% of them effectively improve the heat dissipation efficiency through DCIM analysis tools. These users are also more likely to perform hot spot audits and CFD simulations.

Users without DCIM,32% will not be able to collect actionable data. Such data centers are at a loss to common operational restrictions, such as limited computer room space and power supply.

The DCIM tool can quantitatively analyze the outage cost in operation. 72% of DCIM users are well aware of the cost of data center outages, while only 14% of those who do not use DCIM know it. The results of this survey show that the average cost of each data center outage is about $28900, which is still an implicit cost for data centers that cannot be analyzed quantitatively.

The DCIM tool ensures faster recovery. The survey results show that the average recovery time after a data center outage is 7 hours and 53 minutes. 21% of users using DCIM said that the recovery time was less than 2 hours. Only 11% of non-DCIM data center users can achieve this recovery speed.

Conclusion

Today's data centers face many complex challenges that must be continuously optimized to balance user needs with budgets, staffing, and infrastructure. Recent survey results clearly show that DCIM has become an efficient management tool for data center managers. It can provide managers with valuable information and effectively identify problems (is it easier to "find problems"? ) to help reveal real operating costs and real operational problems, such as a sudden outage in the data center

Without DCIM solutions and associated automated management tools, data center managers must spend more management time and inevitably lack sufficient information to face the challenges of capacity planning and allocation in data center operations.

Therefore, the study of DCIM solutions and costs should fully take into account its long-term benefits, and the benefits have been fully confirmed. Otherwise, the data center will face the risk of short-sightedness. If the short-term costs of data center operations, including time and expense costs, generate longer-term benefits, managers should not exclude them.

For more information about data center management products, please visit:

Http://www.intel.cn/content/www/cn/zh/software/data-center-overview.html

Or contact us by email to dcmsales@intel.com.

The author introduces:

Jeff Klaus is the general manager of data Center Manager (DCM) solutions at Intel Corporation in the United States. At Intel, Jeff Klaus has more than 13 years of team management experience. His team is developing energy and heat management middleware products. Mr. Jeff Klaus holds an MBA degree in Business Administration from Boston University.

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