An Aperture Research Institute (ARI) survey of over 100 datacenter professionals has revealed that although the majority of data centre professionals understand the importance of monitoring for tactical and strategic data centre management, only 35% are using a single monitoring system that provides the level of detail necessary for outage prevention and efficient incident management.
The ARI study reveals that the datacenter community is generally enthusiastic about monitoring, with 68% of survey participants demonstrating an interest in monitoring significant infrastructure elements like generators, cooling units and temperature sensors.
Although 88% of the datacenter professionals surveyed monitor their infrastructure, less than a third (30%) monitor more than 90% of their equipment, restricting their ability to respond to outages and carry out preventative maintenance. 12% of those surveyed revealed that they do not monitor the infrastructure of their datacenters at all. Just over half (51%) of those that are using monitoring systems were using building management systems (BMS), which typically lack the level of detail needed to be effective. 41% of participants that monitor the datacenter revealed they use more than one system to do so.
In some cases, up to six or seven systems were being used.
Only 35% of participants revealed they use a single, dedicated system to monitor the data centre.
Steve Yellen, Principal of the Aperture Research Institute, said: "Those data centres that are using multiple systems risk increasing costs and complexity to unmanageable levels. There's also an over-reliance on building management systems, which typically do not monitor the datacenter at the rack and device level."
The Aperture Research Institute's latest research note, entitled 'Data centre management lacks unified tools and strategy for infrastructure monitoring', is available for free download at: www.apertureresearchinstitute.com