White Paper

4
The Emergence of Data Center
Infrastructure Management
Data Center Infrastructure Management
(DCIM) is a superset of infrastructure
monitoring and encompasses the
ability to manage the data center
physical infrastructure to optimize
data center resource utilization,
efciency and availability.
DCIM includes management of the
data center infrastructure layer (power,
cooling and the physical space), the IT
infrastructure layer, (compute, storage and
communications equipment) and the gap
between the two layers (Figure 1).
By enabling management across the gap,
data center operators have visibility into the
true capacity of their IT and infrastructure
systems, allowing them to manage
closer to actual capacity, rather than the
conservative estimates that leave some
percentage of capacity unused as a buffer.
Emerson Network Power has identied four
successive stages of DCIM progression:
1. Monitor and Access, which provides
the ability to quickly react to potential
problems in the data center infrastructure
and improve management. With
monitoring and access, data center
personnel have visibility into equipment
operating status and receive real-time
alerts and alarms to notify them of
potential equipment operating problems.
Remote access can also speed the
response to equipment problems while
real-time monitoring data can be used
to populate planning tools with actual
performance data.
2. Data Capture and Planning, in which
data center personnel have the ability to
automatically collect data about what
assets are in the data center and where
they are located, as well as how they are
interconnected. This data can be used to
address key planning issues including, is
there enough space, power and cooling to
meet future needs and how can equipment
be commissioned and decommissioned
more efciently.