Mike Rinaldi

IBM EMBRACES EMERSON FOR DCIM – MAJOR CHANGE IN DCIM MARKET DYNAMICS

by Mike Rinaldi on 2/11/13 2:15 PM

IBM EMBRACES EMERSON FOR DCIM MAJOR CHANGE IN DCIM MARKET DYNAMICS

Posted by Richard Fichera from Forrester on February 7, 2013

Emerson Network Power today announced that it is entering into a significant partnership with IBM to both integrate Emersons new Trellis DCIM suite into IBMs ITSM products as well as to jointly sell Trellis to IBM customers. This partnership has the potential to reshape the DCIM market segment for several reasons:

Connection to enterprise IT Emerson has sold a lot of chillers, UPS and PDU equipment and has tremendous cachet with facilities types, but they dont have a lot of people who know how to talk IT. IBM has these people in spades.
IBM can use a DCIM offering IBM, despite being a huge player in the IT infrastructure and data center space, does not have a DCIM product. Its Maximo product seems to be more of a dressed up asset management product, and this partnership is an acknowledgement of the fact that to build a full-fledged DCIM product would have been both expensive and time-consuming.
IBM adds sales bandwidth My belief is that the development of the DCIM market has been delivery bandwidth constrained. Market leaders Nlyte, Emerson and Schneider do not have enough people to address the emerging total demand, and the host of smaller players are even further behind. IBM has the potential to massively multiply Emersons ability to deliver to the market.

The impact of this partnership will ripple through the industry, across both users, Emersons competitors and IBMs competitors:

Prospective DCIM users now have the option to buy from one of the dominant industry IT system suppliers, and one with a nearly unlimited services capability.
Emerson competitors will be under more pressure to bolster their delivery channels and to find similar partnerships.
IBM competitors in both the hardware and management software will be looking for DCIM vendors to partner with to fill in their portfolios to match IBM.

My net takeaway is that this a major dislocation in the emerging DCIM segment and will trigger a wave of realignment among DCIM, systems and software vendors. The end beneficiaries will be potential DCIM users, who have just seen their ability to acquire and support such solutions multiplied by a large factor, and now available from a name that is very familiar to the IT stakeholders. Emerson gets a major leg up on its competitors, and IBM gets a powerful product offering that it can use to enhance its already strong position as an enterprise data center supplier.

Topics: data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, Green IT, data center infrastructure management, Green Technology

Rack Enclosures: More Than Furniture?

by Mike Rinaldi on 2/7/13 10:24 AM

How do you chose your data center rack systems?

Rack systems are strategic assets that play a key role in system uptime and data center availability and reliability. They can be counted on to be flexible and adaptive to accommodate rapid change. They can accommodate monitoring systems that can enhance the management of the data center ecosystem. They are, in short, a vital component of any data center.

The white paper notes that racks are now available that improve equipment installation speed via tool-less, slide in, slide out procedures. Taller racks take advantage of the data centers headroom, while rack depth has increased to accommodate equipment. Side breathing needs have increased rack width to meet new manufacturers specifications and to enhance equipment performance and life through hot-aisle/cold-aisle arrangements.

Topics: rack, Emerson Network Power, Data Center, kW per rack, data center infrastructure management, DVL, electrical distribution, enclosure

How granular do you get when you manage power in your Data Center?

by Mike Rinaldi on 1/31/13 3:37 PM

UPS all the way down to the wips under the floor. Do you take it down to the receptacle level? Do you use tools that are robust enough to let you know when you need to be alerted?

data center management

Topics: Emerson Network Power, Data Center, data center design, kW per rack, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, DVL, electrical distribution

Is Your Data Center Equipment Properly Labeled?

by Mike Rinaldi on 1/25/13 7:56 AM

Short Circuit Current Ratings (SCCR) are required by Code on all types of data center power and cooling equipment.

Beginning with the 2005 version of the NEC, also known as NFPA-70, changes to the NEC impose some significant new requirements for Short Circuit Current Rating (SCCR) of electrical equipment including UPS, Air Conditioners, and practically every other large power consuming or conversion device in today's data center.

Click here for more information.

Topics: data center infrastructure, Data Center, robust data center, data center outages, sccr, short circuit current ratings

Ten Predictions: Why 2013 Will Be a Big Year for DCIM

by Mike Rinaldi on 1/11/13 7:51 AM

There are a number of reasons why 2013 might be the year for Data Center Infrastructure Management. DCIM software has had a number of years to mature, addressing the need for high levels of discipline in the data center. There are various factors that have contributed to the emergence of DCIM as a priority for data center operators- even if many of them are still sorting out the best way forward.

The economy led to a break/fix mentality in the data center at first, but we seem to be out of that now, said Mark Harris, Nlyte Softwares vice president of marketing and strategy. The energy crisis put a lot of adult supervision into the data center. A lot of questions were being asked, and a lot of those questions were about the physical makeup.

DCIM provides a holistic view of the entire data center ecosystem, dynamically recognizing all the pieces and how theyre interrelated. It helps to plan ahead, both for growth and potential disasters (what happens when a piece of equipment is removed?). It is being touted as the ERP application for the data center. And as with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), it is addressing a complicated challenge. When a device is introduced, changes or fails, it changes the makeup of these complex facilities.

Click here for 10 predictions for what 2013 holds for DCIM, based on conversations with industry executives. (Data Center Knowledge)

Topics: data center infrastructure, Data Center, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, cloud strategy

Mike Rinaldi

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