How to Select and Implement DCIM Tools

Transcription

1 G How to Select and Implement DCIM Tools Published: 29 May 2012 Analyst(s): Rakesh Kumar Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is an emerging category of center efficiency and management tools. With over 60 separate and diverse DCIM products on the market, IT organizations need to follow a structured selection and implementation process. Key Challenges The key groups involved in the strategic selection and implementation of DCIM tools are facilities, finance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and data center infrastructure and operations (I&O). Without overall consensus of a DCIM solution, projects may get delayed by many months. The DCIM will attract an increasingly diverse set of solutions over the next three-plus years, but the market will also go through vendor consolidation. Recommendations For a 20,000-foot data center, provision half a person for four to six weeks to build up the repository of information. Carefully select the most important dashboards for the different constituents, avoiding information overkill. Selection of final product should take the out-of-the-box templates for dashboarding information as a key criterion. Build a consensus for the solution criteria with finance, CSR and facilities groups early in the process to avoid organizational conflicts. Analysis DCIM is an emerging category of data center management tools that are aimed at improving the energy utilization and overall efficiency of data centers. The tools are varied in nature and come from a variety of origins including facilities (power management, cabling etc.), IT hardware (server,

2 network management), cooling, modeling (computational fluid dynamics) and spatial layout of hardware. This means that the products vary quite widely in their functionality and the ease with which they can be integrated with existing data center tools such as configuration management data bases, change management engines, asset repositories, etc. Also, the number of tools is quite large. Gartner believes that there are just over 25 tools that directly fit the definition 1 and as many as 40 others that offer some form of loose DCIM related functionality. The net result is that many IT organizations are struggling to analyze the differences between the products and understand how they fit into their own organization. The pivotal question posed by many Gartner clients is how to select and implement the tools in a quick but comprehensive manner. Gartner research "The Six Triggers for Using Data Center Infrastructure Management Tools" explains the six trigger points that should alert users to start looking at the offerings. 2 This research note will offer practical guidance in taking the decision forward to select and implement the tools and is based upon work with a number of clients that have gone through the process. It also highlights practical problems that organizations have faced in implementing the tools. Overall Approach While most organizations have experience selecting software tools, there are specific issues with DCIM tools that need to be considered because of the newness of the market and because of the potential impact of these tools across a broad range of IT and non-it groups. Based upon client interaction, there are two broad ways in which these tools are selected and implemented. First, they are procured in tactical way normally by the infrastructure and operations group in the data center. In this way tactical solutions are sought with a quick implementation time (see Figure 1). The second method is a broader and more strategic evaluation of the solution (see Figure 2). Page 2 of 8 Gartner, Inc. G

3 Figure 1. The Tactical Approach Design appropriate/basic metrics and dashboards Implement as a stand-alone tool Implementation and testing phase: 3 months Select appropriate tools Analysis phase: 2+ months Secure funding from finance 1-2 months Tactical decision by I&O to purchase DCIM tool Trigger Points for DCIM Tools Source: Gartner (May 2012) Gartner, Inc. G Page 3 of 8

4 Figure 2. The Strategic Approach Design metrics and dashboards Implement and integrate with existing tools Implementation and testing phase: 3 months Select appropriate tools Analysis phase: 4+ months Gain buy-in from finance, CSR Gain consensus within broad IT organization Consensus phase: 3-6 months Trigger Points for DCIM Tools Source: Gartner (May 2012) In both cases, there are six broad trigger points for organizations to start investigating if these tools are appropriate and are presented in the Evidence 1. Once this has been qualified, then the following steps should be adhered to. Tactical Decision to Purchase a DCIM Tool In this case, I&O typically seeks a narrow-point solution that deals with a specific problem. This may be about air flow management, cable management or power distribution unit (PDU) energy management. But typically because the problem is quite well understood, the time taken to agree on the need for a product and secure funding is often around the two-month mark. Consensus Phase DCIM tools span the following groups: Infrastructure and operations Facilities (data center and corporate) IT architecture Business and technology analysts Page 4 of 8 Gartner, Inc. G

5 CSR Finance (IT and corporate) Strategic Decision to Purchase a DCIM Tool In the second (strategic) case, in order to have a successful implementation, consensus that a DCIM software tool is necessary has to be reached by most of these groups. Client interactions have found that where consensus is not obtained early, objections are raised later in the procurement cycle which slows down the process. For example, with one client, the objection was raised completely outside the IT department by the CSR group as they were looking at a carbon footprint tool. They did not understand that the DCIM tools could easily report on carbon usage and could be integrated into a desktop tool as well. Reaching a level of transparent understanding took over three months and slowed down the time to implement the software. In this process, normal project management disciplines need to be applied. For example, the consensus-seeking activities must be documented and led by a specific owner. Experience with clients over the last two years suggests that two specific problems occur: 1. Different groups have different agendas and organizational structures. In essence, company politics gets in the way. Some organizations have used part of the IT data center budget and the business CSR budget to fund energy-monitoring projects. In these cases, non-it groups want money spent on broad environmental initiatives and feel that they are losing power to IT groups (who do not get the big picture). 2. Technical requirements for different groups are not always articulated and well understood. For example, the linking of DCIM tools with building management systems requires converting data of different formats (modbus, bacnet, etc.) into a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) format. While this is fairly straightforward, facilities folks fear that information may be lost or used incorrectly. In some client cases, non-it people sometimes feel that DCIM tools are too narrow to provide a broad, businesswide, energy and CO 2 management solution. Despite the issues, we strongly urge IT groups to spend time and effort on building some degree of consensus and buy-in. Analysis and Selection Phase Most organizations have experience in selecting software products. However, the critical issue here is that DCIM tools vary a great deal in nature and will almost always need some degree of integration with existing software products, or the selection of more than one DCIM product that may need to be integrated. For example, some products offer very comprehensive DCIM capabilities (spatial layout, energy monitoring, etc.) but do not have an air flow analysis capability (computational fluid dynamics). Whereas other tools provide air flow analysis but have unproven workflow engines. Also, some vendors focus on the hardware energy management side and others go deeper into the measurement of energy attributed to specific workloads. Gartner, Inc. G Page 5 of 8

6 Given the spread of solutions, Gartner's experience working with IT groups has shown that this process can easily take four months and, when a number of different business groups are involved, this time scale can sometimes be doubled. A very disciplined needs analysis is essential. Moreover, technical evaluation of how easily existing products such as configuration management databases (CMDBs) and asset repositories can be integrated into the offerings can substantially reduce implementation time. Normal tender process must be followed regarding the type of solution that is required, appropriateness of the overall need and the breadth and depth of the chosen platform. Implementation and Testing Phase User experience has highlighted two critical areas in the implementation phase; design of the information dashboards and building the data repositories. Dashboard Design DCIM tools can provide a wide rand of information including: Energy flow across parts of the building Energy flow across the facilities components (PDUs, generators, uninterruptible power supplies [UPSs], etc.) Energy usage at the IT hardware level Cooling data, such as temperature Air flow, including speed, direction and force Special layout of all data center components, including cabling Information from building management systems, including security, access, etc. Asset and contract information about data center components Many of the vendors provide out-of-the-box templates for dashboards. These should be used as a basis but, given such a rich source of information, a high degree of customization is often necessary. However, users need to be aware that one of the pitfalls in creating dashboards is showing too much information, which actually yields little practical value. Also, the level of granularity can cause problems. For example, users often want to see real-time usage of energy across key systems. This is good if that information is then used for energy-based chargeback. Otherwise, such a dashboard may look impressive but provide little useful information. However, a counter argument may be that if some of those servers will be renewed, then actual usage data may be invaluable in selecting the new hardware. Gartner believes that providing different dashboards for different constituents of users requires a clinical approach when so much potential information is available. A further practical issue picked up from clients going through this process is finding people with the knowledge to develop the correct dashboards. Clients have said that while the display of information is straightforward, finding internal skills that span across the different user Page 6 of 8 Gartner, Inc. G

7 constituents to design the information flow is difficult. Some tools have templates that can be used and this should form a key part of the selection process. Building Data Repositories A lot of the data in DCIM solutions is ported in from other existing sources such as CMDB, asset repositories and contract data bases. The method in which this data is imported is very important. Sometimes this process cannot be fully automated and often a degree of manual work is needed. Consistent feedback from users indicates that importing correct and appropriate information requires time and resources. For example, for a data center of 20,000 square feet with a variety of hardware products, it is estimated that four to six weeks will be required with a full-time employee allocated to the process. Even when the vendor offers to do this as a service, client time should not be underestimated. Testing the validity of the information and reports is normally quite rapid, as discrepancies can be picked up and verified quickly. One further point that should be considered is the maintenance of these tools. A part of the operations team needs to take ownership of maintenance and support. Conclusion DCIM tools will grow in importance over the next few years. Organizations need to be careful of the practical issues involved in selecting the correct product and in building the repositories and dashboards. However, once done, they provide a very rich source of data center and cloud information. Evidence 1 Data center infrastructure management (DCIM): Monitors, measures, manages and/or controls data center use and energy consumption of: All IT-related equipment (such as servers, storage and network switches) And facilities infrastructure components (such as PDUs and computer room air conditioners [CRACs]) 2 Six trigger points for using DCIM tools are: 1. Specific power, cooling and floor space capacity issues 2. Data center consolidation projects 3. Building new data centers 4. Data center financial and costing reviews 5. Technical and architectural changes 6. Environment and sustainability focus Gartner, Inc. G Page 7 of 8

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