THE EDGE
Instead of sending out a dedicated team to deploy and set up , engineers can preconfigure the requisite appliances so that when the equipment arrives on site , it can simply be racked up and connected by a small team of lower skilled staff . A team of more technically skilled engineers could then use the cellular connection to bring up those devices remotely ; have connections into them to start pushing out the configurations , updates , user profiles and access controls . In short , they can provision the whole solution remotely once it is physically installed .
Remote IP network automation can provide further enhanced manageability , allowing network engineers to have a single plane of management to easily and seamlessly access the devices and manage them without having to be physically on site .
Network automation is advancing today to move away from a person-to-port model and towards a machine-to-machine configuration , which allows for autoresponse . When an incident occurs , the system can restore or reconfigure on its own , without requiring somebody to go on site or even to manually log in and fix the system .
Remote access is the way forward
All this capability is helping data centres to start hiring remotely located engineers rather than having to confine their search to those located in the vicinity of the site itself . Data centres could have lower level or junior staff on-site 24 × 7 , but they could also have a dedicated resource of skilled remote staff logging into the data centre remotely from wherever they are based . That helps address the data centre skills challenge by expanding the area from which employees can be chosen , but it also benefits the organisation more broadly by supporting a ‘ follow the sun ’ model , whereby different shifts can be brought online as time passes by .
The data centre has access to its preferred engineers at hours that suit those employees and it has the benefit of running a continuous service as a result . By utilising all of the processes that deliver secure remote access and making the most of the growing capability of Smart Out-of-Band and NetOps automation technology , the best route to solving today ’ s data centre staffing crisis can be found .
When allied to the network automation capabilities referenced earlier , this allows the data centre to be more productive and , in a sense , do more with less – a key benefit , especially in the current difficult times . ◊
NETWORK AUTOMATION IS ADVANCING
TODAY TO MOVE
AWAY FROM A PERSON-TO- PORT MODEL
AND TOWARDS A MACHINE- TO-MACHINE
CONFIGURATION ,
WHICH ALLOWS FOR AUTO- RESPONSE .
72 Issue 22 www . intelligentdatacentres . com