by Angela Guess
A new article reports, “Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is the hottest buzzword in IT architectural circles these days. But despite all the enthusiasm, there is still little consensus as to exactly what it entails, or how it differs from earlier generations of data and facilities management.”
It continues, “Ideally, DCIM should provide a bridge between data environments, IT hardware infrastructure and support systems like heating and cooling. In this way, managers can oversee and direct data loads with an eye toward peak performance and efficient resource and energy use. How, exactly, this is to be accomplished is still very much a work in progress, however, and typically involves some tricky integration between advanced management architectures and legacy systems. Nonetheless, the movement is gaining strength, with Gartner predicting the segment will jump from its current 1 percent market penetration level to more than 60 percent by 2014.”
It continues, “Part of this movement stems from the fact that most organizations have given short shrift to facilities management over the years, preferring instead to invest in control of the logical layer, according to Dan Fry, vice president of converged solutions at management firm iTRACS. This has led to an out-of-control situation in which physical resources are often underutilized and poorly coordinated, resulting in high energy costs, poor data performance and increased risk of failure.”
photo credit: bionicteaching
