The advent of cloud computing has resulted in an influx of premature obituaries for the traditional data centers that are still regarded as a safe and reliable way of managing data in this globally interconnected world. Many enterprises, especially the ones operating in the finance and healthcare industries are still reluctant to move core components to a third-party cloud computing provider for data security reasons.
Data Center Infrastructure Management or DCIM, therefore, has become an important component of IT operations across enterprises who believe in the benefits of holding on to the traditional way of data storage/processing and not risking business continuity by outsourcing this critical function to another company. Over the next few years, the market for DCIM solutions is expected to witness a strong rise in Asia Pacific and Europe, as per a SBWire Press Release on Transparency Market Research (TMR) data. TMR forecasts the global DCIM market to increase from the $0.52 billion in 2015 to around $2.85 billion by 2024, registering a CAGR of 21.10% during the forecast period of 2016-24.
If you are contemplating DCIM integration, it is important to work with an expert in the DCIM space. You must also keep into account the following important steps.
Steps to DCIM Integration
1. Document the goals – It is important to understand what you are trying to achieve through this proposed integration. Document these functional and non-functional requirements in great detail.
2. Identify the key metrics – Remember, there is an avalanche of data out there. Know what are the key performance metrics relevant to your business that you plan to capture, recommends a spokesperson from Sunbird.
3. Plan the workflow – Have you planned the workflow yet? It helps to know the frequency at which you plan to capture the data. Find out if there is any real-time data that can be critical to plug in faster so as to enable the business to take quick business-impacting decisions.
4. Have an incremental approach – An incremental approach like agile software development will help in taking and plugging feedback at regular intervals and building the integration in a phased manner instead of delivering a complete solution at one go.
5. Bulletproof your data – Have enough safeguards in place to ensure the data is safe and system integrity is maintained. Put in various checks and balances in the system, such as limiting user privileges and firing notifications in the event of unusual data flow within and outside the system.
6. Build to scale – The DCIM architecture that you plan to put in place must be designed to scale as per the future needs of your organization. Most expert DCIM service providers who are in this field for long will know that provisioning for scalability must not in any way hamper the performance levels of the IT infrastructure that you are setting up.
7. Perform validation testing – Before the launch date, do a thorough usability testing by engaging all the stakeholders who stand to be impacted with such a solution. Step number 4 that talks about following an incremental approach to development will ensure that feedback from stakeholders comes at regular intervals and the final outcome is one that emerges out of a broad consensus.
IT managers realize that the complexity and variety of data have increased to unprecedented levels today and therefore are increasingly taking the services of DCIM specialists to ensure 24/7 uptime and improving efficiency through data center optimization services.
There is no denying the fact that enterprises the world over will continue to see the benefits of using data centers. They are here to stay in spite of all the engineered news that one reads around their death. Those are just flat-out wrong, as is also well articulated by SnapRoute CEO Jason Forrester, in an article on Fortune.
Marcelo Fincher is a blogger & writer on technology related topics with years of experience in studying technological advancements. In his spare time, Marcelo likes to read books and take a walk on the beach.
