Exploring DCIM software and trying to figure out the pricing from your DCIM vendors shouldn’t take a rocket scientist.In this blog, we will discuss:
- the specific items you should be looking for in a quote,
- what is included,
- are there any modules needed to fulfill your needs,
- and any hidden costs associated with your shiny new DCIM solution.
First rule of thumb: beware any hidden costs when evaluating your DCIM vendors.
After going through the arduous process of defining your requirements, obtaining funding approval from management, and looking for a DCIM vendor, wading through demos, and going through your checklist on a spreadsheet, you have finally narrowed your top two vendors….when reviewing the price quotes, be 100% certain you are comparing apples to apples, instead of apples and oranges!
What are the DCIM Costs?
You want to get all the information you need upfront, not one failed installation and thousands of dollars later. Are all the features/requirements you are looking for included in the quote? Sort through your requirements and see if they are included in the quote.
Items like power monitoring, CFD, cable management, SNMP discovery, and application mapping, are they all included? Does your DCIM solution support other hardware manufacturers equipment? Or are they vendor-specific?
Are there additional costs, such as add-on modules? Make sure all of the features/requirements in your checklist are included in the quote — for example, is training included? What is the daily rate for services?
What is the DCIM Pricing Structure?
Next, find out exactly how DCIM vendors price their solution? This shouldn’t be secretive information that’s hiding behind a wall of smoke and mirrors: DCIM vendors should be very transparent with regards to their pricing and how they price their solution.
Get a clear idea of how the pricing is structured and what you will need to pay for: are you charged by devices, nodes, cabinets, square footage?
How is the DCIM Software Licensed?
Finally: how does the vendor license their solution? This is important to find out as soon as possible so that you avoid hidden costs.
Examples of licensing include: a permanent license, yearly subscription, or cloud subscription? Ask about flexibility within licensing, such as: “if I start off with the cloud, can I migrate to an on-premise solution?”
Your Pricing Quote Should be Timely
Again, pricing should be straightforward and getting a quote together shouldn’t be a mysterious process that keeps you in the dark.
You shouldn’t be waiting for weeks to get a quote. I mean I have better things to do — instead of waiting and waiting. If it takes weeks to get a quote, I wonder how long it’s going to take when I need to get ahold of customer support.
So, How is netTerrain DCIM Priced?
Before we finish, we’d be remiss if we didn’t put our money where our mouth is and give you a quick look at how our DCIM software netTerrain is priced:
netTerrain DCIM is priced by number of devices. This is the physical chassis equipment such as servers, routers, switches, patch panels, firewalls, PDU, UPS, etc. The ports, cards, and connections, links do not count.
netTerrain DCIM has two add-on modules:
netTerrain OSP Module. This module adds dynamic maps and fiber bundling features for organizations needing to manage both Inside Plant and Outside Plant cabling. For more information on netTerrain OSP, click here.
netTerrain Environmental Monitoring Module. This is our real-time power monitoring feature set to see your temperature of your data center equipment, manage power policies, and view cooling analysis. Please click here for more information.
Make sense?
So netTerrain DCIM is priced by number of devices and if you need any of those two modules, make sure they are in the quote.
Next, what type of on-premise software license do you want?
On-premise license: allows an organization to install netTerrain on their own server (requires a Windows Server, IIS, .NET and MS SQL Server database license). The on-premise solutions include unlimited users. Graphical Networks offer two options for an on-premise solution.
Perpetual: One-time cost, and it is your license to keep forever. The first year of software maintenance is required for the initial term and optional software. For a list of the items that is included in DCIM software maintenance, click here.
Yearly subscription: This is a 12-month license that will need to be renewed if you want to continue to use netTerrain. It offers a lower upfront cost and you can migrate from a yearly subscription to a permanent license after your subscription is up for renewal.
For netTerrain DCIM, you will need to know the number of devices, whether you need the two add-on modules (netTerrain OSP/netTerrain Environmental Monitoring), and which on-premise option you need (perpetual or yearly subscription license).
And, because we often get asked about whether or not we offer a Cloud solution: we do! Our solution includes our OSP module and is also priced by number of devices (in addition number of users). For more information about netTerrain Cloud,
please visit our Cloud website by clicking here.