Using DCIM to Monitor the Space in Your Data Center Outside of the Rack

Paula Alves
January 15, 2015

Traditionally, systems for monitoring and managing IT devices and facility objects have existed as separate entities.  But, as the data center power chain has grown larger and more interdependent, operators have begun to embrace the need for an intelligent unified management tool that can bridge the gap between IT and facilities in order to effectively manage numerous data center subsystems, improve efficiencies, and maintain availability.

Being able to gather information from IT assets like servers, network switches, and rack PDUs, as well as from facilities objects like CRACs, UPS, and RPPs, provides data center operators with far more accurate and complete views of data center events.  For example, facilities is often able to use the metrics obtained from IT systems to increase energy savings and use space, power, and cooling resources optimally.

Although the monitoring of facilities objects can be achieved via the use of DCIM plugins, many DCIM solutions can easily be integrated pre-existing facilities systems like BMS, BAS, and EPMS, allowing data centers to leverage data that is already being amassed and providing a single consolidated view of the health and status of both IT and facilities objects.

Recognizing the high value of DCIM for facilities management, Raritan’s Power IQ® DCIM monitoring solution now supports monitoring and reporting for facility objects including CRACs, UPS, and RPPs. 

A new data center health map allows IT and facility managers to visualize the current state of their data centers as a whole, and quickly and easily identify potential cooling and power threshold violations from one unified system.  A Cabinet Inspector feature provides operators with a deeper layer of insight on individual devices at the rack.

Most impressively, Power IQ is capable of monitoring virtually all of the energy usage throughout the facility as it passes from point to point on the power chain: building meters, UPSs, Floor PDUs, RPPs, busways, intelligent rack PDU’s, Branch Circuits, and CRACS. This allows data centers to identify potential risks and resolve them before they lead to systems failures.