It is often suggested that of all data center concepts and technologies, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is the biggest victim of disproportionate disagreement, confusion and misunderstanding. There are potentially many reasons for this, including the fact that so many different DCIM product offerings are now emerging within the market. This makes it hard for organizations to know where to start searching for the most appropriate solution for their business needs. Another possible reason for the confusion and misunderstanding around DCIM is that it aspires to do so many things; helping data center operators address a myriad of challenges while simultaneously offering the potential to transform their businesses. It is almost as though DCIM’s many faces and potential benefits defy attempts to define it in a single sentence – or even a magazine article.

It seems, therefore, that what is needed more than ever is some clear, concise, jargon-free research on the DCIM market, including the range of choices and decisions organizations need to make when considering a DCIM deployment.

Despite suggestions to the contrary, DCD Intelligence believes it is possible to make clear statements about what DCIM is and what it does. A top-level definition understands DCIM as a software platform for centrally monitoring and managing a data center’s core assets, including capacity, power and cooling, in an integrated way.

DCIM’s monitoring capabilities include the ability to view, in real-time, the performance and utilization of racks and the use of power and cooling across a data center’s entire footprint. Many DCIM platforms include a wide range of monitoring tools, including the ability to generate reports, analyze trends and view a data center in 3D. Meanwhile, DCIM’s management capabilities include tools for planning and provisioning capacity, and other data center resources and tools for responding to incidents as they arise. Some DCIM solutions also include a range of self-management and provisioning capabilities specifically designed for colocation and cloud service providers that operate with customer-self-service business models. These include tools for reserving and purchasing new capacity.

But despite many similarities, the range of actual functions – as well as their capabilities and potential – varies from one DCIM service offering to another. This means it is essential for end users to base DCIM deployment decisions not only on the functions and features of an individual solution but also the “caliber” of service providers – including their track record of successfully working with different types of data center operators.

Recommendations for DCIM Users
Organizations looking to deploy DCIM need to factor several considerations into their product selection and decision-making. Here are some of DCD Intelligence’s top recommendations for new DCIM customers, as well as organizations looking to get the most out of existing DCIM deployments:

1. Assess future challenges and needs
Organizations need to consider the type of IT and facilities-related requirements that are likely to shape the evolution of their business over the next five to ten years. These requirements include both challenges – such as the need to optimize existing data center resources – and opportunities, including the deployment of new technologies, and (for managed service providers) the need to equip data center customers with new tools for self-provisioning and service management. When examining specific DCIM solutions available on the market, organizations should prepare a checklist of key requirements and evaluate different DCIM solutions according to their ability to address current and future requirements.

2. Choose an experienced vendor
When selecting between a range of DCIM vendors, data center operators should pick a supplier that understands their business. On the one hand, they should select a provider with experience working with organizations of similar size, from similar verticals, and facing similar sets of needs and challenges. On the other hand, their chosen DCIM solutions partner should demonstrate an ability to understand the specific needs and challenges of an end user’s business. One way in which organizations preparing for DCIM deployment can assess the experience of prospective solutions partners is by talking to and learning from peer organizations about their experiences with rolling out DCIM.

3. Demand a partnership, not a quick sale
Organizations need to identify specific criteria for selecting the right DCIM solutions provider. Central to this process should be the recognition that a DCIM service provider is not just a vendor from which a one-off purchase is made, but rather a partner with which organizations will have a long-term relationship. DCIM vendors should be willing to engage with potential clients in long consultancy processes to properly establish how their specific solution can address the operator’s needs and maximize new opportunities for their clients. In addition, many organizations may need their vendor to be involved in implementing the DCIM solution throughout their business. In many cases, this implies a key role for the vendor in training an organization’s data center personnel and management.

It is also important to remember that DCIM is a dynamic technology that will need to evolve and be reconfigured as end-user businesses expand and change. This implies the need for an ongoing relationship between DCIM end users and their vendors. There are opportunities here for DCIM vendors to provide ongoing consulting and advisory services to their customers on the best ways of adapting their DCIM solution to changing market and business dynamics.

4. Ensure your solution will scale and evolve
When choosing a DCIM solution, new customers should ensure that their chosen solution will be able to scale as their business grows. Although many data center operators understand the way their markets are transforming, many of them are ill-equipped to rapidly adapt their businesses to those changes. In addition to helping optimize the use of existing data center resources, DCIM can facilitate the advancement of new business initiatives based on the provision of virtual and hybrid data center architectures. It’s also important for new customers to choose a solution that has proven it can integrate with all the requisite devices, systems and equipment.

5. Design a roadmap for implementation
The process of implementing DCIM will depend partly on the capabilities of the DCIM vendor, as well as the specific needs, challenges and data center topographies of the end-user organization. However, it is important for organizations to have a roadmap for implementing DCIM long before they are ready to start the implementation process. An implementation roadmap should be developed in conjunction with DCIM vendor partners and needs to establish key implementation milestones and ways of measuring them. The roadmap should also prioritize use cases such as monitoring, alerting, asset management and capacity planning. A good DCIM solutions vendor should work with new customers to identify milestones and use cases that are relevant and credible to their business. They should also be able to articulate a clear and structured plan for the phased deployment and integration of the DCIM solution throughout an end-user organization. Key implementation phases typically include project initiation, defining the requirements, solution design, training, integration and configuration, testing and project handover.

6. Empower your workforce
The extent to which a new DCIM implementation succeeds and generates future ROI depends partly on how well it is understood and utilized by an end user’s workforce. It is therefore essential that organizations have a plan for embedding the knowledge of how a new solution works and how it will affect an organization’s business among all of the key end users. One important activity that needs to occur at the start of implementation is the establishment of an implementation taskforce. The taskforce should comprise a project leader and technology experts from the DCIM vendor, as well as an internal project manager and senior users of the technology from the DCIM customer. The implementation team should schedule regular meetings to oversee the deployment of the DCIM solution within the organization. A key responsibility of the implementation team will be to introduce a new training program and to ensure that all relevant staff are trained in every aspect of data center management and planning that the new DCIM solution will enable – including resource allocation, capacity planning and risk management.

7. Prepare for cultural change
By providing a common platform for monitoring and managing data center resources, DCIM produces greater harmonies and efficiencies between IT and facilities personnel. Although a data center’s IT and facilities personnel share the common goal of maintaining the health of the data center, in many cases they continue to operate in physical and cultural silos. DCIM solutions have the potential to bridge the gaps between these silos based on the use of shared dashboards, standard and customized metrics and integrated workflows. The integrated design of DCIM helps to ensure that IT and facilities personnel can effectively work together within a single system to manage and solve operational challenges.

For many organizations, this new integrated approach to data center management requires a change of culture to accompany the changing roles and responsibilities. In addition, DCIM has the potential to reduce the time and complexity involved in resolving data center issues. As a result, organizations may benefit from being able to redeploy freed-up human resources to more productive and strategic activities elsewhere within the enterprise.

8. Use DCIM to improve your business
Ultimately, DCIM offers the potential to improve an organization’s business on multiple levels. On the one hand, a carefully selected and well-integrated DCIM solution offers end users the opportunity to enhance their ability to manage core resources such as capacity, power and cooling. This has implications for the way IT organizations serve their own customers and for the quality of services they provide.

In addition, for providers of managed data center services such as colocation, DCIM’s ability to support accurate monitoring and management of data center resources at an individual client level makes it possible to offer higher levels of service, backed with service level agreements. As their respective markets become more competitive, the need for colocation and cloud service providers to improve the level of service they offer will be essential to retaining exiting clients and winning new business.

An added appeal of DCIM to service providers is therefore its ability to support new value-added services such as web-based monitoring and self-management tools for clients. DCIM offers service providers a way of differentiating their offerings from those of their competitors.

The market for DCIM services looks set to become increasingly dynamic and competitive. As it does, the need for advice on selecting the right DCIM technology partner and adopting the best strategy for deploying and utilizing DCIM will become even greater. In the months ahead, DCD Intelligence plans to publish further research that will help organizations navigate this increasingly important market. Watch this space.

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