modern data center

Is your organization considering the need for Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software — and trying to determine if it is something that will truly impact your functionality and bottomline? It’s all too easy to get distracted by all the features and bells and whistles you see in a demo or even in a proposal.

Underneath all the “can do this” and “can do that” around DCIM, there are some immovable justifications for why you may need DCIM. Let’s take a look: below are the five key reasons many of the organizations who use netTerrain have taken the plunge into DCIM.

1. Easily Locate Your Data Center Assets Using DCIM
Need to know what you have and where it all is? Trying to do so without DCIM is basically like trying to find a needle in a haystack. With a DCIM software such as netTerrain, however, you can search for any asset based on IP Address, MAC Address, or any attribute as you define it.

Understand what you have and where it is.

2. Find Your Zombie Servers Using DCIM
Have underutilized servers lurking around your data center — or even worse, servers not performing any function but drawing power? What about zombie cables? Aside from wasting power, you could also be wasting money buying IT stuff you simply didn’t need in the first place. With DCIM, you can find what you have and re-utilize it or power it off to save costs.

Control data center power with DCIM.

3. Plan for New Installs Using DCIM
How do you locate and reserve rack space for new equipment right now? With DCIM, you can transform that process and know exactly where to place each new server — based on the space, power, and weight availability of your data center racks. DCIM helps you eliminate wasted space and no more wasted power.

Control data center space with DCIM.

4. Get Actionable Insights Using DCIM
With DCIM reporting and dashboards, you can view your data center space, track your cabling management, and manage your power and cooling — with trending analysis.

5. Save Time Using DCIM
Time is money…especially when network issues arise. With DCIM software, you can find information quickly. Use netTerrain to help troubleshoot and see what services are impacted during an outage, who owns the equipment, if it’s under warranty, where in the data center is equipment outage located, to direct your ops team to go and resolve the outage.

So…do you ‘really’ need DCIM software? If your organization has significant issues in any of the above categories of need, DCIM stands to help resolve those issues. When you’re evaluating a DCIM solution, be careful not to get distracted by the features and stick to the bottomline: will the software help me do A, B, and C so I can get the ROI we need? Different types of DCIM software will have different strengths — and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every company. For further reading, check out our series on Choosing the Right DCIM Solution (for your organization’s unique needs).

About Fred Koh

As a seasoned sales executive, Fred Koh serves as Director of Sales and is responsible for Graphical Networks sales and channel partner program, marketing strategy, and operations.