THE EDGE
s data centre environments
continue to grow more
A complex, data centre
managers are increasingly
turning to business intelligence and
analytics to provide the information they
need to manage and optimise their sites.
The COVID-19 pandemic has quickened
the pace of this trend due to shelter-inplace
orders and the need to minimise
the number of staff on-site, resulting
in a surge in demand for remote data
centre management tools with built-in
dashboards that provide immediate
actionable insights.
Dashboards are a key component of
remote data centre management. Having
focused charts and reports, each with
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for
your top objectives, accelerates data
analysis and improves collaboration and
productivity by displaying only the data
you need to succeed for any particular
goal. Dashboards also help break down
organisational silos by encouraging
information sharing across functional
teams. Every team member knows to visit
their dashboard for the latest information
and everyone sees the same data which
boosts transparency and accountability.
The most useful KPIs will depend on
your specific objectives. However, based
on our experience with hundreds of
customers participating in our global user
groups, we’ve consolidated feedback on
what information matters most to modern
data centre managers. The following nine
dashboards and their associated KPIs
have proven to be essential for successful
remote data centre management.
Space. Space is often one of the biggest
limitations in data centre operations
management and intelligent space
planning is key to navigating data centre
expansion and optimisation. A dedicated
dashboard on data centre space will
provide the most critical information you
need to know your capacity to deploy
new devices, use your space efficiently
and defer costly investments in new
data centres. Important metrics to track
include available floor and cabinet space
remaining, available space by individual
and contiguous rack units, available rack
units over time, server/network blade
chassis slot availability/usage and rack
unit used by rail.
Inventory. Most data centres have
a wide variety of assets but some
organisations still rely on error-prone
and inaccurate manual processes and
outdated spreadsheets to track their
asset inventories. An inventory dashboard
provides a reliable, at-a-glance view of
what server, network and storage assets
you have, how many you have of each,
and the current status of each asset so
you can easily and accurately plan for
their life cycle. On your dashboard, be
sure to track asset makes, models, age,
configuration and available inventory of
parts and field replaceable units.
Connectivity. In addition to tracking the
assets in your data centre, you need a
connectivity dashboard for a singular view
of physical data and power port capacity
to ensure available resources to deploy
new assets and services. Achieve optimal
resource utilisation, ensure redundancy
and successfully plan and implement
projects by monitoring cabinets with the
Herman Chan, President, Sunbird Software
DATA CENTRE
MANAGERS ARE
INCREASINGLY
TURNING TO
BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
AND ANALYTICS
TO PROVIDE THE
INFORMATION
THEY NEED
TO MANAGE
AND OPTIMISE
THEIR SITES.
most free data and power ports, data
ports usage per connector type, assets
per connected power supplies, data and
power ports usage per port properties, and
data and power ports usage over time.
Change. A change management
dashboard simplifies the management
of moves, adds and changes, helps you
maintain SLAs, and drives efficiency
and productivity of data centre staff. In
one single dashboard, you can have
complete visibility into how much work
is being done in the data centre, what
is being done and by whom, and what
progress is being made on change
requests. In your dashboard, track
change requests by user, stage and type,
change requests by length of time per
stage, completed requests over time
and changes per person. Monitor and
manage your requests from creation to
approval to ensure work order quality
and transparency while improving staff
efficiency through improved collaboration.
Power. Ensuring that mission-critical
servers are running, power capacity is
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