CIOTechOutlook >> Magazine >> August - 2014 issue

Raritan: Following Modular and Holistic Approach for DCIM

By

CIOs and IT managers today are deeply engaged, and often challenged, in the task of managing their data centers and leveraging performance. In this backdrop, the discipline of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is receiving increasing traction in the market. As per a MicroMarketMonitor Research, the Asia-Pacific data center infrastructure management market is expected to grow from $229.2 million in 2014 to $1,124.1 million by 2017, at an expected CAGR of 69.6 percent from 2014 to 2017. The transformation that data centers are going through requires DCIM solutions to adapt to the changing business and compute dynamics. Also, the exponential increase in traffic is accentuating the concerns for power usage and energy efficiency.

DCIM is being defined in numerous ways, but the definition which describes it completely is the one which speaks for integrated management of IT infrastructure and facilities infrastructure. “From our perspective, DCIM represents a suite of activities within a datacenter which are asset management, change management, capacity management, power management, energy management and environment management.” says Sanjay Motwani, Director - India & SEA at Raritan International India Pvt. Ltd. The company, headquartered in New Jersey, has proven its expertise in power management, infrastructure management, KVM and serial solutions for data centers of all sizes. Named as Gartner 2012 "Cool Vendor" in the research firm's DCIM report, Raritan is a provider of modular Data Center Infrastructure Management solutions.

A marked trend can be seen today towards consolidation of datacenters – to achieve not only cost savings but also consistency of service. A few strategically-positioned centers in appropriate locations enable savings on real estate and maintenance and management staff. In the face of the rising energy and real estate costs, firms are focusing on lowering carbon footprint and cost reduction. The rise of the modular datacenters has encouraged OEMs to combine their server, network and other system resources into a single container and provide a holistic datacenter solution. Raritan’s modular solution optimizes power usage effectiveness, instills ability to add new capacity as and when needed and reduces organization's capital and operational expenditure for setting up and running data center.

With over 25 years of data center experience, Raritan helps enterprises effectively plan and manage their data center infrastructure and environment. It provides accurate, real-time information about the facilities, networks and IT. The company enables enterprises to be more energy efficient and fully utilize their existing data center power infrastructure.

Contemporary Challenges
DCIM is a relatively young term that represents a diverse group of IT physical infrastructure solutions and energy efficiency is an inherent part of it. Enterprises often measure the consolidated power in a data center via power auditing system which performs quarterly audits and involves a tedious process both in terms of time and efficiency. As there is no continuous evaluation, some enterprises are not aware of the fact that there is excess power consumption within their data center. Raritan gives pointers to the companies so that they can evaluate the rate of their power consumption and implement corrective strategies and tools to avoid excess power consumption and recover the investment in short time. Raritan’s DCIM tool enables enterprises to provision their work order, allocate space for additional equipments, do capacity planning and comprehend the power consumption pattern. The company equips enterprises with necessary insights on expense pattern to allocate costs to each division of their data centers.

Modular DCIM Solution
DCIM solution should not be implemented in one shot. Changes to a data center infrastructure influence the way a company works in terms of its incumbent systems and processes. The employees have to change their traditional behavior in which they have been operating and DCIM becomes too complicated if all the six modules are implemented at once. Raritan advises organizations to do it in step by step manner – figuring out power consumption pattern followed by asset management and environmental safety measures, and finally moving on to capacity and change management. This modular nature and easy implementation capability of its DCIM solution is what sets the company apart from its competitors.

Enterprise market is tech-savvy, so it is easy to talk to them, educate them and sell to them. However, from cost perspective, the scenario is completely different when it comes to selling to SMBs. Raritan, while bringing revolution to the data center management market with its practical and operational innovations, is trying to build enterprise class solutions for SMB level as well so that when they grow, they have the advantage of using the best tools. As the solutions are structured and modular, they can deploy these at their own pace.

Raritan, besides continuing to provide solutions to Enterprise market, has also taken the onus of growth of this market by educating the SMBs.

On The Deck

CXO Insights

3 Focus Areas For An Autonomous Driving Revolution

By Varun Chhabra, Vice President, Product Marketing Cloud, Dell Technologies

Impact of Cloud Computing and VR Technology on...

By Varun Juneja, VP - Design & Development, ATS Infrastructure

A Glance Into Evolution Of Wearables And...

By Carlos Justiniano, VP Of Engineering, Flywheel Sports

Facebook