The evolution of data centre management
Old-style data centre automation was all about the need to reduce physical intervention. That battle has been fought and won. Now, the term ‘data centre automation’ has come to mean the automated management of the totality of an organisation’s enterprise computing resources.
The newer term ‘data centre infrastructure management’ (DCIM) has been popularised in recent years to describe the many aspects of the discipline. In its broadest sense, this can include things such as asset management, power optimisation, cabling management, capacity planning and a range of other tasks. But the most important of them remains the management of hardware and applications to ensure optimal systems performance.
DCIM, in its broadest sense, is still mostly employed in large traditional data centres that organisations use for enterprise-scale computing. But the tools and techniques are increasingly finding their way into smaller computing environments – today, many small-to-medium enterprises have computing environments of a scale and sophistication that can benefit from a solid management foundation.
That is because the vastly greater sophistication and complexity of modern information systems has complicated the management process. Data centre automation today means employing the right tools to manage the organisation’s changing demands. The problem is that there are many such tools available, and choosing the right mix, as well as the right overarching management architecture, can be a challenge.
There is no shortage of point solutions. Most vendors offer management tools specific to their products – many of which are also very useful in multi-vendor environments. Some of these tools are designed to work with particular architectures, such as Lenovo XClarity, a resource management tool optimised to make it easier and faster for administrators to deploy virtualised infrastructure.