In my most recent article, I mentioned how you can use netTerrain Environmental Monitoring (EM), which is now a standard feature included with netTerrain DCIM software in 2020 (it was previously priced as a separate module), to help manage rack density (from a capacity planning perspective). To learn more about how netTerrain’s Environmental Monitoring feature assists with rack density and capacity planning, click here.
There are other areas in which netTerrain EM can help control your data center and associated costs. It’s no secret: energy costs are the fastest rising expense for today’s data centers. With so many options for computing, from on-premise, the Cloud, and a hybrid mixture of both, now, more than ever before, data centers today are in need of better visibility and control.
So, how can netTerrain DCIM with netTerrain EM help us gain better visibility and control? netTerrain EM is an environmental monitoring tool that manages the health, power, and thermal of servers and other data center equipment, to help organizations gain better control of their data center assets.
As I discussed in my previous article, netTerrain EM greatly benefits in increasing rack density. Beyond just increasing rack density, however, there are a myriad of other benefits:
- Improve asset management
- Optimize cooling and power efficiency
- Reduce downtime
- Increase data center reliability
Improve Asset Management with DCIM/Environmental Monitoring
In previous articles, I’ve discussed ghost servers, such as how ghost servers cost organizations valuable space and money. netTerrain EM locates ghost servers, or underutilized servers, by using historical and power data to determine if servers have not been utilized for a certain time period.
In netTerrain DCIM, after finding these ghost servers using environmental monitoring, you can look them up easily through search, and create a work order task to fully decommission the equipment (if needed).
Kicking your ghost, or “zombie”, servers to the curb will help increase data center usage and helping in building out data center space vertically, instead of horizontally, reducing significant costs in a data center build-out.
An example of insights you can access using environmental monitoring in netTerrain DCIM
Control Power and Thermal with DCIM/Environmental Monitoring
With environmental monitoring, power and thermal data are compiled and aggregated to provide cooling analysis and provide alerts for racks and groups of servers — based on your custom power & thermal events. Because netTerrain EM provides a 12-month history of data for capacity planning, and affords you the ability to create power policies, you can create a rational plan to coordinate business units, with required performance levels, and really take control of your power.
For example: some applications require all the processing power available on a 24×7 basis – but so many other applications are less time and performance critical and do not require the maximum server performance and the requisite power draw. You can create your own power policy based on these events, and as a result, you increase the ability to meet workload demands with equipment scheduling. You can empower your data center to do more.
To summarize, netTerrain DCIM with netTerrain EM can greatly help with capacity planning, increasing rack density, improving asset management, and gaining control of your data center power.