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Data Center Management Software Buyer's Guide
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Data center management is related to data center managers or the individuals whose job is to oversee any technical or IT issues within the data center. This includes the management of server and computer operations, an enormous amount of data, services, and application, as well as protection and security of data.
What is Data Center Management Software?
Data center management software allows data centers to increase efficiency and uptime while reducing costs. The software can monitor and control physical systems such as servers, storage, and network gear, IT or telecommunications hardware and so on. Generally, this includes a mapping tool, one of the data center management tools allowing employees to view the location of various hardware and how it contributes to the overall functioning of the facility.
What are the Features of Data Center Management Software?
The Data Center Infrastructure Management software (DCIM) streamlines data center management to run data center operations efficiently and improving data center infrastructure planning and design. This system can bridge information across various organizational domains to maximize data center utilization.
However, it is good to have a look at the features of the software to understand how it works before you invest in one. The following are the common and key features of the data center management solutions to get end-to-end visibility and control on the data center.
› INTEGRATION AND AUTOMATION: Your DCIM software should integrate with systems you already placed and customize integration and infrastructure automation by leveraging APIs.
› INVENTORY AND ASSET TRACKING: Asset Management module manages a central repository of data center assets, even tracking minute details of assets. You can spot the exact location of an asset with the help of track reports. Your software should also allow you to add or edit device components and set reminders for important material notes.
› CHANGE REQUEST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: Your chosen software should be able to keep track and record any changes made in the server. It should record the reason for change, priority, change request description, and technical or business impact analysis.
› DASHBOARD: Look for the software that gives a quick overview of the entire system and its components. It should show graphs and statistics for device deployment, rack space, power utilization and so on.
› NETWORK MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING: Your data center management system should assist you in various device monitoring activities, such as performance monitoring, logs monitoring and more. It should also monitor various services, RAM, CPU, power supply, and more.
› SETTING REMINDERS: The software should provide notifications and alerts based on the defined rules during the time of monitoring. These alerts should be sent through emails or SMS.
› VIRTUALIZATION: Your chosen software must have this aspect, as it minimizes your costs on hardware, power, cooling, administration, and others. This feature in DCIM should also support other virtualization platforms too.
› MOBILE ACCESS: Your software should allow you to monitor and view performance aspects. It should also allow you to create customized dashboards and through a web-browser interface, you should be able to perform admin activities. You should be able to access the software from any device.
› MULTI-USER ACCESS: Your software should allow you to assign different user roles, from operator to manager, allowing restricted access.
What are the Benefits of Data Center Management Software?
Data center management software helps your business to improve infrastructure visibility, employee productivity, and asset utilization. It also reduces the time to plan and implement changes, power consumption, and downtime. You can also benefit from eliminating unnecessary manual tasks, reduce the number of on-site employees and associated business costs. There are more benefits of installing suitable DCIM software in your business.
› IMPROVES UPTIME: The software monitors critical facility infrastructure constantly, and record equipment details, reports on data, and monitors for threshold violations. You can act before failures affect users and services with the built-in alerting system.
› INCREASE CAPACITY PLANNING AND UTILIZATION: The software quickly allocates space for new racks, servers, IT and facilities equipment. With few clicks as well as power and network connectivity, you will be able to manage the relationship between critical facilities infrastructure and IT equipment.
› IMPROVES PRODUCTIVITY: With fully integrated and automated workflow management, it is easy to add, edit, or change. Process assurance and audit trials increase employee productivity significantly.
› DRIVES EFFICIENCY: The data center infrastructure management system collects data from various sources automatically and performs immediate calculation, ensuring organization energy efficiency initiatives.
What is the Cost of Data Center Management Software?
DCIM pricing varies depending on various packages. If you are looking for the DCIM software with complex features, it corresponds to the complexity of the data center. However, a simple DCIM package often offers asset discovery and performance tracking. The cost of deployment increases with configuration and software maintenance. The data center size also directly affects the cost of DCIM software, the larger the number of assets, the higher is the cost. Rather than lifetime licensing, monthly and annual subscription-based licensing is common.
Considering what features you are looking for in the software, you can choose one of the best data center management software from loads of software available in the market. The price of the software starts from $15/month/user to $70/month/user. You should search for software available according to your business requirements and shortlist a few from them. You can request for a demo first and experience software’s functionality by using their free trial. If you don’t feel comfortable working with software, you can try another free trial from a different provider. However, the free trial offers you limited usage of main features for a limited period, and you will understand if what software suits your needs within this time.
Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Data Center Management Software
1. Will your data center management software offer automated discovery of devices?
2. Is the system capable of providing power management tools?
3. Does the system consist of JCL management infrastructure?
4. Will the solution include a cross-reference system?
5. Can your DCM software offer audit trails?
6. Will this system provide a mechanism for behavior-based acceleration?
7. What kind of functions does your solution pack in for diagnostic testing?
8. Will I be able to export and import data easily?
9. Does the solution possess the capability to run efficiently on multiple platforms?
10. Does your software facilitate hassle-free collaboration between multiple users?
11. What kind of compliance should I expect out of your product?
12. Can you elaborate on the security standards you practice?
13. Who will be the owner of the data?
14. How will you safeguard the privacy and safety of the data?
15. Will there be any downtime at all?
16. What are your risk detection and monitoring functions?
17. Is it feasible to personalize this data center management solution?
18. Where does the system stand with regards to scalability? Is the scaling process simple?
19. How much time would it take to implement this software?
20. Where would you deploy it?
21. What can I expect from your support services?
22. How to contact your support team?
Conclusion
Data center resources, when not managed properly affect your business agility. Managing assets of a data center is a tough task, which gets simpler with data center management software by reducing the laborious task. Once you determine to invest in the software, it is recommended to use free trails first to understand if it fits your business needs. This will give you the confidence to invest in it. However, it is important to get good clarity on what you want and getting clear on other aspects such as security, employee training, and support from the software provider.