A: JEFF KLAUS, Director, Data Center Solutions, Intel: "I believe that DCIM project measurements should be kept simple since overly complex measurements get diluted as they go up the management chain. Positive ROI: You have to believe the bene t outweighs the costs to deploy; Ease of installation / use: This is a di cult metric to be objective but you’ll get the relative di culty compared with alternatives, ensure support is also considered; Proof of concept: It’s really the capstone metric which summarizes the installation, ease of use and ROI, bottom-line is to ensure you prove any DCIM solution before you buy."

 

A: FRED DIRLA, CEO, Fieldview Solutions: "ROI – Free-air cooling or raising data center temperatures effect energy use. DCIM tools help measure energy use to provide insight for optimizing – thus contributing to ROI. Streamlined Business Operations – real-time visibility into data center operations to better control power, CPU utilization and environmental data, streamlines the analysis process. Lower Over Subscription – reduce over subscription vis-à-vis in-depth reporting and analysis. Your selected DCIM solution should interoperate and be able to integrate with your current system(s)."

 

A: PETER VAN DEVENTER, CEO, SynapSense: "The  first success metric for which a DCIM project should be measured is Return on Investment, as the best projects are self-funding. The second metric is Increased Capacity Utilization, which is obtained through the measurement, optimization, and control of resource usage. And the third metric is Reliability Improvements

– supported through the use of environmental monitoring, improved visibility into power usage and load pro le, remote alarm noti cation, and trended analysis of equipment performance and events."
 

A: SOEREN BROGAARD JENSEN, VP Enterprise Management and Software, Schneider Electric: "The metrics for success vary from customer to customer, and from role to role – so they are di erent for IT operations, facilities management and senior management. So, for example, if you are involved in IT operations or even have overall responsibility for IT operations, you might measure uptime, responsiveness to change, customer satisfaction, e ciency or cost. Facilities might be measured by power quality, physical security, tracking the cost of IT services. Capacity management is a good example of a metric which should be transparent across the whole organisation as it might equally apply to IT, who might need to place a server; facilities, who might need to know the impact of the server load on physical constraints and to manage utilisation; and senior management, who need to know when they need to build a new data center."

 

After this opening question each participant then addressed three questions to the discussion group. 

Look for Part 2 tomorrow when questions from Jeff Klaus of Intel include: By what degree are data center and enterprises over-provisionnig power and cooling based on derated or estimated power usage? 
 

The full discussion is available to read now in DatacenterDynamics Digital Edition - no registration required.