Management of monitoring tools is another area that
has gained significant popularity within data center
operations. There are so many vendors and tools within
this market segment that it can be very challenging
to evaluate which tool will meet a specific data center’s
operational requirement. Within the standard, there
is guidance on individual management tools, such
as the building management system (BMS), building
automation system (BAS), data center infrastructure
management (DCIM), automated infrastructure
management (AIM), computational fluid dynamics
(CFD), computerized maintenance management system
(CMMS), configuration management database (CMDB),
electrical power management system (EPMS), identity
access management (IAM), and workflow management
system (WFMS). However, it is not unusual for functions
and features between these different tools to overlap,
with multiple tools providing the same or similar
functionality. This can also make tool selection difficult
and may result in monitoring systems or processes across
multiple tools that are unnecessary, adding little
or no value.
The convergence of similar functionality between
management tools was a concern when the BICSI 009
standard was being developed. It was addressed by
also providing guidance on functionality separate from
specific tools. The guidance provided is divided into the
following functional modules:
36 I ICT TODAY
• Asset Management
• Network Discovery
• Connectivity Management
• Power Management
• Capacity Planning
• Forecasting
• Dashboards
• Workflow
Specific guidance is provided on what type
of monitoring points, data collection, and analytics
are recommended within these modules. The objective
is to help data center operators identify what it is that
they want to manage, monitor and track. They can use
that information to implement an efficient management
solution that will provide the full feature set they need.
Over the past decade, most data centers have
implemented improved monitoring capability
throughout the facility infrastructure and ITE assets.
Metrics and monitoring are other areas covered within
the standard to help identify data points in order
to measure and assist in day-to-day operations. Data
points also help guide decisions that need to be made
regarding long-term objectives. Furthermore, forecasting
capability also provides value as a guide for long-term
objective discussions. It is not common for data center
operations to measure and track data points that are
necessary to facilitate building a forecast profile
identifying future requirements, even though the data
points are often readily available within their existing
management tools. Forecasting can provide significant
value in helping to guide future decisions, including:
• Migrating in-house applications to external cloud
resources and the impact to facility's infrastructure
• Migrating an application from a legacy platform
to a new platform and the impact to facility's
infrastructure
• Changes in technology that increase compute
processing or storage capacity and density
(think what VM or container ratios were
10 years ago versus today)
• Analyzing projected total cost of ownership
(TCO) of in-house versus outsourced compute
and storage services
In order for management
policies and procedures to
be effective, training on the
policies and procedures
is fundamental.