DCIM can go a long way to helping your data center better serve the business, be more efficient, spend less money and mitigate risk.
It helps you achieve these goals with functionality for effectively managing your inventory, cutting power consumption, eliminating downtime and optimizing data center operations.
But you don't immediately need every DCIM capability. Deciding which capabilities to implement depends on your priorities. Start with issues that most negatively impact operations. Are you spending money on equipment you don't need? DCIM inventory tools provide an accurate, real-time inventory of every asset's floor or rack position with modeling to show you the impact of change. Are you experiencing too much downtime? DCIM's insight into real-time power consumption and dependencies between devices helps you reduce energy usage and unplanned outages.
Once you've identified your functional "hotspots," measure their impact on your data center and the business to set your priorities. Now you can create a plan to implement the DCIM functions that will address the most important problems first, with metrics to define the desired results.
As you move forward, priorities will change—and that means your plan should change. With each success, revisit your priorities list to select the next issue to be addressed. The good news is that DCIM not only helps you achieve your goals, but does so with agility and flexibility, enabling you to reap the benefits over time.
