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Now that 2020 is in the rear-view window, it’s an appropriate moment to look at the progress our teams at Schneider Electric have made and one area that stands out as deserving of praise is DCIM (data center infrastructure management).
It was just two years ago when I delivered a keynote address that questioned the need for DCIM. At the time, I asked, as Mark Twain might have put it, if the reports of the death of DCIM had been greatly exaggerated. I concluded that DCIM was becoming more relevant as the reliance on IT infrastructure at the edge had become more mission critical. However, traditional DCIM tools were inadequate and needed to take advantage of cloud and mobile technologies.
Now, in 2021, I am excited to say that we have dramatically matured our DCIM offerings. DCIM is more imperative than ever in a time of accelerating digital transformation when so much of the world is working from home.
DCIM is delivering on opportunities – in data centers and at the edge
At Schneider Electric, we have delivered on making DCIM simpler and less expensive to deploy. DCIM today is more versatile with monitoring and management functions accessible from anywhere, anytime, on any device. And, it is evolving from generating raw data to providing smart analytics with recommendations. Add in built-in cybersecurity analysis, predictive capabilities, and environmental and physical security monitoring, and it is an exciting time.
I see multiple ways DCIM is delivering opportunities for the industry and the need for it has never been greater. The shift to a more automated world was accelerating fast before COVID-19 and has been accelerating faster during the pandemic. Our teams at Schneider are more focused than ever on ensuring DCIM is equipped for current and future challenges.
Long live DCIM!
One of the most complex challenges is data center and IT sustainability, especially when we look into the near future and see the looming energy crisis at the edge. Across the globe, people are using IoT sensors and meters to collect data on electric usage patterns, as well as other resources. We analyze this data in data centers and run algorithms to learn ways to optimize efficiency and overall sustainability. Increasingly, hybrid data centers are not just enabling the digital transformation – they are the heart of it, evolving to meet the ever-growing demand in a sustainable way.
However, we need to ensure the IT infrastructure itself is sustainable.
I recently spoke about Schneider Electric’s framework for data center sustainability at DCD’s Towards Net-Zero event. In my presentation, When There’s no Plan B, A Framework for Achieving Sustainability in Data Centers, I stressed the importance of driving operational efficiency, which can be accomplished through a combination of connected systems, predictive maintenance services, and software and analytics. This approach ensures DCIM will play a pivotal role in Schneider Electric’s data centers of the future, helping the industry meet the data center challenge of sustainability.
Have no doubt that we will continue to invest in DCIM, as remote monitoring and management is critical to building the sustainable and resilient hybrid IT environment.
