What is the trend of DCIM 3.0 and how has this evolved from legacy platforms ?

Infrastructure management is a concept that goes back to when PCs first started being used as servers in the 80s . To support these PCs , we started building small UPS and traded software . That was the first version of infrastructure management , or DCIM , but we ’ ve always seen that the infrastructure follows technology trends .

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 , suddenly CIOs looked at those PC servers and decided they had to get it under control . They put them into racks and pulled them into data centres . The infrastructure followed them and that started the trend of the data centre creating new requirements for the software , with new considerations around how much space , power and cooling capacity was required .

In around 2008 , the industry started thinking about PoE , considering the efficiency of the data centre infrastructure , and that ’ s really when the term DCIM first started being used . Looking at the current market , we believe we ’ re at the beginning of another 20 years ’ cycle as the pandemic highlighted a couple of things regarding CIOs and new challenges .

We ’ re trying to embrace this and ask how the infrastructure management software needs to evolve , as it has in its first two cycles , to meet the challenges that CIOs are starting to experience .

What obstacles are organisations with outdated IT infrastructure currently facing ?

It ’ s not only about the outdated infrastructure , but also about where the infrastructure is located . If you ask most CIOs how many servers or assets they have on their network you will receive vague answers . They ’ re not too aware – but we believe that ’ s not going to be acceptable moving forward .

Firstly , you must make sure all of these things are resilient . In the DCIM 2.0 wave , the concern was whether the data centre was resilient and had tier certification , whereas now , a CIO goes to colo or the public cloud without fully understanding it .

Secondly , cybersecurity is a new challenge because the attack surface is much wider , with a 40 % increase in firms reporting cybersecurity incidents . This challenge is not just about the data centre , it ’ s about a whole hybrid IT infrastructure that needs to be more resilient and secure .

How is the IT infrastructure landscape evolving and why is it important for DCIM systems to adapt and evolve with it ?

There is this new heightened view and awareness about resiliency in hybrid infrastructures . If my wiring closet goes down as I work from home , there ’ s a problem . Since the pandemic , CIOs are dealing with this level of complexity that they didn ’ t have before .

One of the factors emerging is sustainability . CIOs are considering what future questions will be asked such as ‘ what is the energy consumption of your IT ?’ Or ‘ what is the carbon footprint of your IT and what are you doing to manage , measure and reduce it ?’ About 60 % of IT energy consumption is consumed inside data centres and 40 % is outside data centres . By 2035 , those numbers are going to reverse , with 60 % of the energy consumption being outside of what we consider a data centre and 40 % inside the data centre , which means the implication that more than half of the IT energy consumption is the responsibility of the CIO . Sustainability is something that DCIM 3.0 aims to address .

Why should open , vendoragnostic software be seen as essential to data centres ?

CIOs should have the ability to customise and integrate data into a customer ’ s environment . There ’ s this recognition that we need data from IT Asset Management Tools , building management systems , power management systems and even sustainability systems . With this data , we can answer the questions about infrastructure locations , firmware patches and security policies . It ’ s part of an overall system – that is one of the things which has been essential about becoming more open and vendor-agnostic .

Why should data centre security , resilience and sustainability all be of concern to data centres and how is this driving the evolution of the IT infrastructure landscape ?

When you look at the CIO and their responsibility , there is a fundamental trend of the role becoming more involved in business and sustainability , forcing them to start asking questions about their partners such as those in colocation facilities . To answer these questions , they need the right tools .

Historically , data centres have been relying on an SLA . That ’ s not to say that in the future the SLA isn ’ t going to be enough , but there ’ s going to have to be something more powerful behind it to ensure an understanding of how they ’ re operated and provide a more granular level of data than before . www . intelligentdatacentres . com

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