The Top Five Data Center Management Challenges

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Data center managers face several challenges in managing their IT infrastructure, which if not done properly lead to lower productivity, poor capacity planning, and higher costs just to name a few. While the challenged can be many, here are the top 5 according to us.

1. Ensuring Availability and Uptime

Using spreadsheets and homegrown tools to manage server and other IT equipment information is a nightmare, because the information can get outdated very quickly, can have errors, and even be incomplete. Several challenges arise out of this, like doing troubleshooting during unplanned downtime or when attempting to map the power chain. Instead of using spreadsheets, use a proper solution that can maintain records in one place and record all dependencies.

2. Maximizing Capacity Utilization

With so many adds/moves/deletions, it is almost impossible to understand how much space, power, and cooling you really have, or predict when will you run out of which asset; or which server is most suited for a particular new service; or just how much power is needed to ensure uptime and availability.

3. Reporting Reduced Operating Expenses

It’s not enough to implement solutions that reduce operating expenses, you also have to prove it. According to Uptime institute, “Going forward, enterprise data center managers will need to be able to collect cost and performance data, and articulate their value to the business in order to compete with third party offerings.”

4. Managing Energy Usage & Costs

According to a NY Times article, “Most data centers, by design, consume vast amounts of energy in an incongruously wasteful manner…online companies typically run their facilities at maximum capacity around the clock…as a result, data centers can waste 90 percent or more of the electricity they pull off the grid.”

5. Improving Staff Productivity

Non-automated or manual systems require facilities and IT staff to spend an extraordinary amount of time logging activities into spreadsheets. This takes away time that can be spent making strategic decisions for the data center and improving service offerings.

These challenges can be addressed using a data center infrastructure management solution.