Do you need data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software? Before you select a vendor and solution, proceed with caution: when it comes to what you need and the pricing structure you agree to, make sure your i’s are dotted.

Why?

DCIM software is priced differently…depending on the vendor. Afterall, most software vendors are motivated to earn as much money from the software they make as possible. To get every last cent out of a sale, many vendors are now starting to price out various DCIM features “a la carte” — in other words, if you want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich — you can’t just buy it: you’ve got to buy the bread, the jelly, the peanut butter, and maybe even the knife you’ll use to make it.

This same model applies to how vendors often sell DCIM. This works out for the vendor (at least in the short term)…but for users, it can get expensive fast. Want to add on connectivity? With our DCIM software, netTerrain, that’s included…over at another vendor, they’ll charge you $1.00 per asset per year. Yikes.

Another consideration with add-ons is this: if it’s so outside of what the software primarily does that there’s an additional charge for it, maybe it’s not something you want to buy anyway. For example, with our software netTerrain, connectivity/cable management is an integral part of the software — whether you’re buying it for DCIM, network documentation, or OSP! Connectivity is so integral to how netTerrain works that we wouldn’t charge extra for connectivity because it’s such a selling point to our customers in the first place!

netTerrain DCIM lets you drill down from the global and street views to your racks, links, ports, and cards — at no extra cost

Another example? Integrations to other solutions. netTerrain comes with a suite of pre-built connections that make connecting to your other solutions, like Solarwinds or ServiceNow, as easy as clicking a couple buttons. Another vendor out there is charging a staggering $1.00 per asset per year for use of their ServiceNow integration.

In other words: buyer beware! Keep reading to avoid getting into an expensive situation that’s hard to extricate yourself from.

Our advice? Make sure to ask your DCIM vendor what is included in the base offering. What are, if any, additional charges, for example connectors, power monitoring, API’s, and network discovery. You need to compare each DCIM solution apples to apples.

If there are extra costs, consider the impact. Need to connect to Solarwinds and there’s a charge for that — will the extra costs stop you from expanding your documentation project in the future?

netTerrain DCIM, for example, has no additional costs (besides the number of devices and named users). Our power monitoring is included as a no cost option. The only additional module for netTerrain DCIM is if you need to document and manage your fiber plant. The netTerrain outside plant module helps organizations to manage their fiber connectivity down to each individual fiber strand and dynamic maps support with OpenStreetMap, Google Maps or Google Earth.

If you need DCIM software, know — before you buy — what you’ll need to accomplish: do you need to manage cabling, visualize third-party data, etc? Knowing what you need to accomplish helps you find a solution that’s best for your needs (and hopefully avoid a solution that not only isn’t the best option, but which also charges you an arm and a leg just to be able to do that). If you’d like to give our DCIM software, netTerrain, a try, we’re here to help: click here to get a demo and/or 14-day free trial.

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.