1) Plan to use fresh inventory data. Sounds simple, but we many struggle trying to use “good enough” data.
2) Test your inventory data. More than 90% of customers think their information is correct when it really isn’t.
3) Plan to hire “Smart hands” that have experience with data center audits. The # 1 reason most implementations suffer (take longer to deploy and cost more than planned) is they try to reallocate very busy data center engineers. It is well Read more [...]
In 2009 my Associates were involved with a major data center build and migration for a Fortune 500 customer in the Midwest. The old data center had been in operation for over 20 years and was inadequate to our customer’s needs for the usual reasons, primarily that the support infrastructure was worn out and obsolete.
I was told that on the day the migration to the new data center began the UPS load for IT equipment in the old facility totaled 375 kW. On the day the migration was complete, Read more [...]
Keeping track of assets is one of the biggest challenges in today’s data centers as they are an ever increasing number of assets inhabiting the data center and the need to track valuable assets is very time consuming and resource intensive effort. Even with ongoing validation of information most are left with information that is less than 80% accurate.
Tracking these assets and what they are allocated to is more important than ever for many companies who have a need to validate their asset information Read more [...]
Passive and Active RFID tags are different technologies that are often evaluated together. Both RFID tags use Radio Frequency (RF) energy to communicate between the tag and readers.
Active RFID tags use an internal power source (battery) to continuously power the tag. Their lifespan is determined by the power of the battery, once the battery fails, so does the tag. They have very low signal strengths to communicate with the readers. Since they are continuously powered, they can be read within Read more [...]
So what’s the difference between the two data collection tagging technologies?
While RFID and barcodes differ across many areas, they both have a common goal: automate the process of managing assets. RFID tags have many advantages over barcodes; however they have not completely replaced that technology.
RFID tags do not require a line of sight, where barcodes do. RFID also offers greater read ranges and read rates over barcodes, which can only be manually scanned one at a time, making Read more [...]
Our team has lived in data centers for 70+ years collectively, serving as either as an advisor or the end user leading a data center team. 18-months ago we were discussing some best practices and tools with a client and they started to express some frustrations around their DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management) tool. The tool itself was not the problem per se, they had done their homework and the tool was the right tool for their needs, but the initial setup and ongoing upkeep was not the Read more [...]
Knowing where all the assets are is a key initiative for nearly all data center teams and IT groups. Without that information it is difficult to find servers when they need to be repaired, identify depreciation, or lifecycle concerns. RFID is a mature technology proven to improve inventory gathering and management, tracking of assets as they move through your organization and even helping to organize a migration from one facility to another.
Time: Current manual inventory takes approximately 1 Read more [...]
The migration of a data center no matter the size is not an easy thing to accomplish. Planning and coordination up front is the key to success!
Prior to migrating equipment having all of the required asset information such as number of devices, device types, application hardware, and software configurations updated is paramount. It is not uncommon for managers to think their data is up to date only to find that during a migration that critical information is missing or inaccurate. This leads Read more [...]
Every 3 to 4 months, Asset Vue hosts a regional Data Center Users' Forum (DCUF). The mission of the DCUF is to provide a commercial free forum where members collaborate on relevant mission-critical issues, new technologies, customer testimonials, and best practices affecting reliability, availability, and lowest cost of operation. Each forum is a half day committment which is easily divided into three sections: an open forum to discuss the groups "top of mind" concerns, a vendor spotlight, and Read more [...]
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