Intelligent Data Centres Issue 20 | Page 69

WITHOUT EASY ACCESS TO THE RIGHT
INFORMATION , DECISIONS
ARE DELAYED , PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO MOUNT AND SERVICE DELIVERY IS
IMPACTED .
THE EDGE ne of the biggest challenges facing today ’ s data centre

O professionals is the inability to effectively manage their data centres remotely . Increasing Edge data centre deployments , shifts to colocation facilities and the need to work from home through the COVID-19 pandemic prevent on-site management and exacerbate the need for remote monitoring and management of missioncritical infrastructure .

Data centre managers are now stuck wondering about questions like : how much capacity do I have and when will I run out ? How do I manage moves , adds and changes with remote hands ? Where can I deploy equipment if I don ’ t have the luxury of walking the data centre floor ? How do I identify and manage hot spots ? How do I ensure power loads don ’ t exceed capacity and cause downtime while I ’ m not at the data centre ? And without easy access to the right information , decisions are delayed , problems continue to mount and service delivery is impacted .
To answer such questions , the solution lies in identifying and monitoring Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs ) and leveraging insights to optimise your data centre and increase uptime , improve efficiency , better utilise capacity and boost the productivity of people .
The top 12 KPIs you need to monitor to remotely manage your data centres are :
• Power utilisation and capacity per cabinet . Data centre power resources are increasingly constrained , while managing to uptime competes with driving efficient power utilisation . By monitoring your power utilisation and capacity at the cabinet level , you will improve uptime by ensuring you don ’ t exceed capacity and save money by discovering stranded power capacity .
• Real time power trends per cabinet . Many data centre managers take weekly or monthly measurements of their power consumption , leaving them vulnerable to short-term peaks and potential overloads that are not detected . Monitor your power consumption per rack in real time , trend that data continuously and set thresholds and alerts to ensure that you are notified and able to react before there is a major issue or users are impacted .
• Stranded power capacity per cabinet . Data centre managers will often plan , budget and allocate more power to each server than is actually demanded by the IT equipment . This
Herman Chan , President , Sunbird Software

WITHOUT EASY ACCESS TO THE RIGHT

INFORMATION , DECISIONS

ARE DELAYED , PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO MOUNT AND SERVICE DELIVERY IS

IMPACTED .

causes stranded power that can still be utilised in racks . For a single rack , a couple of kilowatts of stranded power may seem unremarkable but when you factor in hundreds or thousands of racks , stranded power could account for as much as 50 % of all available power . Monitor power consumption in your data centre to identify stranded capacity . Then , deploy that power with confidence and delay spending millions to build your next data centre .
• Available rack units trend . This KPI allows you to see when you may run out of space and how many items can be installed in your data centre over time , based on RU height . It is useful to identify trends in the efficiency of your use of space and to correlate how much space vs . power capacity you have to deploy new devices .
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