Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Overview

Data centers are far more complex and difficult to manage than ever before. Most data center managers try to manage these dynamic and complex environments with little more than spreadsheets and a few CAD diagrams. Managing today’s IT infrastructure has its challenges.  Limitations of space and power, along with the enormous complexity of managing a large data center, have given rise to a new category of solutions with integrated processes – Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM).

A comprehensive DCIM solution provides data center professionals with the visibility of all data center assets along with their connectivity and relationships. DCIM solutions provide data center professionals with the ability to discover, visualize, model, control, report, predict and manage all physical data center assets including the ability to simply deploy new assets and plan capacity for future growth. DCIM solutions can also help control energy costs, reduce risks and increase operational efficiency.

The nlyte DCIM suite provides data center professionals with the predictive intelligence and management controls they need to reduce operational risks and achieve smarter, more efficient and highly available data centers.  The nlyte DCIM suite provides a unique combination of:

• Intelligent capacity planning that delivers actionable information for optimizing the use of power, cooling and space through the optimal placement of data center assets
• Business process automation that improves availability and operational excellence

We designed the nlyte DCIM solution from the ground up to address real-world data center problems, provide data center services and solutions, and enable data center managers to continuously improve the performance of their facilities by using nlyte to invoke a series of processes we call the best practice DCIM Process Cycle.

The nlyte DCIM Process Cycle uses six steps to help data center personnel get control of their data centers and make informed decisions for the planning and effective IT infrastructure management and asset management.

1. Discover - You can't manage what you can't find.  nlyte provides the ability to automatically search for IT assets, collecting important data to speed implementation and keeping your records up to date.
2. Visualize - Once your assets are accounted for, nlyte maps the logical data collected during the discovery process and creates a virtual model of your entire data center estate.
3. Model - To effectively manage your assets, nlyte provides the ability to manipulate your virtual model of the data center, creating sophisticated "what if" scenarios to plan those Move, Add and Change (MAC) initiatives, before committing your team to implement the changes.
4. Control - After you have modeled your virtual changes, it's time to get them implemented.  nlyte provides a robust, data center-centric workflow process to insure that your people are working together and using best practices to manage your data center estate.
5. Report - Your changes have been implemented, now it's time to measure the results.  nlyte supports the real-time collection of data specific to power and environmental metrics and provides the business intelligence tools to deliver this information to management for review.
6. Predict - When it comes to data center capacity, predicting the future can be the difference between "open for business" or "out of business".  nlyte uses the historical data stored in the nlyte repository to track trends and forecast future requirements for space, cooling and power.