DCIM

Simplifying higher education IT infrastructure complexity

Universities and higher education institutes often face complex challenges in providing the right services to students and staff, while meeting emissions goals. Modernisation of ICT offers numerous opportunities for efficiency, availability and reduced environmental impact, as Louisa Buckley of Schneider Electric explains. There is no escaping the digital transformation of higher education. It has impacted everyone, forcing leaders to reform almost every element of the learning experience. At the forefront of the transformation is technology. But there’s a problem - the paradox that while there’s more pressure than ever to evolve and innovate, many institutions are behind the curve when it comes to IT infrastructure. Universities and colleges regularly experience challenges with space constraints, ageing infrastructure, and sustainability. The education sector can face significant challenges in supporting education and training across diverse, distributed campuses, over a wide range of disciplines, and often with an equally wide range of legacy, modern and cutting-edge infrastructure, while also protecting the institution and any intellectual property (IP) and confidential information for which it is responsible. Modernisation of IT infrastructure in this context is much more than improving availability or efficiency; it is an enabler of better management, reduced costs, and a clearer, accelerated path to net zero. Unique and common challenges The challenges mentioned are not entirely unique to the education sector, as the tech industry has been dealing with them for decades, and recent developments have allowed IT estates to become more visible, manageable, and optimisable. Advancements in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) and instrumentation have meant the term ‘smart’ can be applied to ever more categories, from uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) to cooling systems, and buildings. Cloud-based and AI-enhanced management systems, such as data centre infrastructure management (DCIM), can span multiple environments, from on-premises to the cloud and beyond, gathering data, increasing visibility and showcasing insights for optimisation and efficiency. Digital design and modelling These insights begin at design, as digital design and modelling tools allow existing systems to be mapped and understood more extensively, with visualisations helping to highlight the impact of any development, protecting historical and architectural heritage. In operation, the design models go on to serve as digital twins, sandboxes for configuration, optimisation and change management. This level of digitalisation of sensors, equipment, infrastructure, and buildings means that building management systems (BMS) can be integrated with power and cooling systems, which in turn can be managed with onsite renewable energy source (RES) generation to provide a complete picture of consumption, operations, and emissions. Tracking this level of data over time with analytic tools can allow AI-enhanced systems to optimise within specific parameters, on availability, resilience, energy consumption, user needs, and overall emissions. This level of data allows a more complete picture of entire operations for the whole organisation, facilitating meaningful comparisons with other similar organisations, locally or globally, as well as adjacent sectors. Best practice from other areas can be examined and applied. Full Scope 1-3 emissions reporting becomes possible, with a complete picture of environmental impact. Common reporting standards and frameworks can then be adopted, or existing ones more easily applied. Predictive and preventative maintenance An additional benefit of this variety, richness, and depth of data is a greater scope for predictive and preventative maintenance, where anomalies are detected earlier, before they cause an outage, failure, or loss of service. Cybersecurity There are also benefits through modernised ICT infrastructure for cybersecurity, as vulnerabilities through the likes of peripheral devices or systems can be mitigated through network segmentation, whitelisting and traffic management, as implemented through centrally managed policies. Education experience Schneider Electric has extensive experience in cutting-edge new designs, modernisation, and digital transformation projects, and specifically within the education sector. University College Dublin’s (UCD) heritage dates back more than 150 years. Its main Belfield campus has facilities from the 1960s onward and is one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities. Schneider Electric and partners successfully designed and delivered a new cooling system that provides greater data centre efficiency that has unlocked valuable real estate for redevelopment and new facilities. The Uniflair InRow Direct Expansion (DX) cooling solution is more scalable, efficient, and provides resilient cooling for IT infrastructure. UCD’s solution is based on 10 independent InRow DX cooling units, rightsized to server load to optimise efficiency. The system is scalable to enable UCD’s IT Services Group to add further HPC clusters and accommodate future innovations in technology, including the introduction of increasingly powerful CPUs and GPUs. Similarly, Loughborough University, one of the world’s leading sports-related universities, has undertaken a data centre modernisation project. The next-generation EcoStruxure for Data Centre solution has delivered increased resilience and efficiency, including a services agreement and EcoStruxure IT software to provide 24/7 data-driven insights with proactive maintenance and service support. The project was delivered in two phases with partners: firstly modernising its Haslegrave facility by replacing an outdated raised floor design and deploying an EcoStruxure Row Data Centre solution, an integral part of Schneider's EcoStruxure for Data Centres architecture and IoT-enabled system. This deployment has significantly improved the overall structure, enabling an efficient data centre design. University of Lincoln also faced resilience challenges due to a lack of standby power generating capabilities, affecting its ability to carry out work without service interruption. In modernising its UPS estate, APC UPS added resilience to the university’s network, with 110 Schneider Electric APC Smart-UPS SRT units deployed across the university’s distributed edge facilities, providing power protection and continuity in the event of disruptions or disturbances to the mains power supply. They are managed through APC NetBotz environmental monitoring devices, as well as EcoStruxure IT Expert and Data Centre Expert DCIM. This not only enables the IT team to prioritise ongoing remedial tasks and respond more quickly to unforeseen events and outages, but has also allowed cooling in the data centres and edge facilities to be optimised for greater operational efficiency and lower power consumption. Expected standards These various experiences have allowed each of these leading universities to achieve greater operational efficiency and visibility of overall consumption and impact, as well as operational insights and optimisations that feed into net zero targets and ambitions. As a coordinated strategy for modernisation, increased digitalisation and optimisation provide unparalleled opportunities for educational institutions to meet their unique challenges while improving services to students, faculties and researchers, and reaching net zero ambitions. For more from Schneider Electric, click here.

Sunbird’s DCIM software helps Vodafone drive sustainability

Vodafone is a telecommunications company that’s trusted by more than 300 million mobile customers, 28 million fixed network customers, 22 million television customers, and six million business customers around the world. The company’s focus is on connecting people, places, and things through fixed and mobile networks. Vodafone has a large and sprawling infrastructure, consisting of many data centres. Consequently, Vodafone’s data centre professionals struggled to have a complete understanding of their environment and capacity to enable them to reduce their energy consumption and get the most out of their existing facilities. They needed to know the temperature of their data centres to understand if they could raise temperatures to save energy. They also needed to know more about the power allocated to each rack, the power the rack hardware was actually consuming, the spare power capacity left in each rack, and the amount of spare physical space. It was also important to be less dependent on fossil fuels and find more energy efficient cooling methods. “We wanted to gain insight regarding power usage, cooling, and data and power connections,” says Andrew Marsh, Senior Manager for Infrastructure and Data Centres for Vodafone in the UK. “It was also important to us to be able to get rich business intelligence through an easy-to-read dashboard that would help with the day-to-day operations. We wanted that dashboard to give us all the necessary key performance indicators with charts while allowing us to drill down to get the details behind each chart.” Related to this need was having access to detailed reports, according to Andrew. “We wanted to know what costs are associated with electrical costs and cooling. We wanted the ability to project how much spare real estate we have from a space and power perspective, and we wanted a comprehensive asset list so that when we deploy a new asset, we can make a more educated guess about where to deploy it.” Vodafone began a search for a platform that possessed four capabilities: visualisation, an easy-to-use dashboard, a comprehensive asset inventory, and in-depth reporting capabilities. That led Vodafone to Sunbird’s DCIM solution. “We looked at several products in the marketplace and did a couple of proof of concepts,” says Andrew. “The thing that sold me on Sunbird was the fact that it was an out-of-the-box solution, which meant that I didn’t need to do lots and lots of development to get the look and feel that I needed. Also, there were a number of preconfigured dashboards to help us make intelligent decisions.” Sunbird’s DCIM gives Vodafone all of the capabilities it needed, including asset management, capacity management, change management, environmental monitoring, power monitoring, 3D visualisation, and BI and analytics. Vodafone uses Sunbird’s DCIM to collect, trend, and report on the data from its temperature sensors. Sunbird transforms this data into actionable information that enables it to visualise and understand where overcooling occurs so it can raise temperatures. Vodafone deployed more sensors, going from 16 to 800 sensors in a single location. Sunbird also allows Vodafone to evaluate rack space and equipment across its facilities in real time. Users can instantly identify rack capacity, as well as every device’s precise location, technical specifications, and connections to other assets. Now, deployment and management decisions are made faster and with much less effort. Vodafone leverages Sunbird to measure and track power usage in real time throughout all of its facilities. This allows users to see power utilisation trends and capacity levels across the facilities’ power paths. “Today, we are deploying rooms of 200-300 servers every couple of months,” says Andrew. “Even though I have a small team, everything is going very well thanks to the excellent training that Sunbird conducted. The solution is very intuitive, and support is always there when we need it.” Vodafone is also building solar farms and wind turbines and leveraging free air cooling to reduce its carbon footprint.

Why UK data centres need to focus on optimal energy efficiency

By Jodie Eaton, CEO, Shell Energy UK The volatility of the energy market has been one of the defining features of doing business in 2022. For some, this has proven an inconvenience. For energy intensive industries such as data centres, however, things are far more challenging. Tightly managing overheads will not only prove key to success, but survival. This requires the intricate management of energy consumption and harnessing process efficiencies wherever possible to keep servers running and costs down. But while market volatility is proving a challenge, regulation is also focusing the minds of data centre managers. While no longer strictly aligned to EU policy, the UK’s general direction of travel is towards big reductions in energy use, minimising carbon emissions and transitioning towards net zero. Making a plan Getting hold of statistics and reliable information on UK data centres is difficult - and work needs to be done here for policy makers to obtain a true picture of the sector and its energy consumption. Traditionally, data centre set points for temperature have been between 18 and 21°C. However, there has been no meaningful research to align these targets to meet other region’s targets. Most notable is the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which recommends a temperature set point of between 18 and 27°C. Understanding how we measure energy usage is important, as it provides an agreed baseline. In the UK, data centres use Power Utilisation Effectiveness (PUE) to gauge consumption. This figure is based on the ratio of total facility energy divided by the amount of energy used to power ICT systems and is expressed as a number. Typically, data centres in the UK operate between 1.5 and 1.8, with the EU average being 1.8. In centres operating at a PUE of two and above, more energy is being used to provide the supporting infrastructure that is supplied to the ICT equipment. This suggests that more energy is being used to ‘cool’ the infrastructure than is strictly necessary - so is a handy measure of efficiency. The data centre estate  It is important for policy makers to understand the nature of the UK data centre ‘estate’. These operations come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from someone’s back bedroom to hyperscale or cloud facilities, containing hundreds of thousands of servers. Due to huge demand, these types of facilities are currently being built at a remarkable pace globally. Latest estimates suggest that around 500 such centres exist globally, with at least another 150 in construction. Most analysts estimate that data centre growth will be in the region of 25% for at least the next decade. Based on this thinking, we could soon see between five to 10 colocation facilities in every major city throughout Europe. How to realise the energy saving potential Energy savings of at least 15 to 25% could be achieved by data centres, with some businesses being able to achieve up to 70%. However, this would need a very radical approach, with businesses willing to make fundamental changes to their operations. Based on the figures above, typical server room energy bills could be reduced by around £10,000 to £25,000 per annum. And while this may not sound like very much, multiply that by 80,000 (the estimated number of UK server rooms) and you achieve national savings of several million pounds. How do I save, what do I need to do? Firstly, the best option is for the UK to adopt the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency). This details more than 150 best practices that cover management, IT equipment, cooling, power systems, design, and monitoring of server consumption. Secondly, the UK needs to obtain data on energy usage, how much of this energy is used by running cooling systems and how much UPS’ use. Moving ahead, data centres need to measure the amount of energy, and thus the cost of their IT estate to gain true visibility of current consumption. Next, the industry should calculate its PUE - the total amount of energy consumed by the entire facility, which is then divided by the IT load. Given this key baseline, we can start to track progress. Exploration of options to contract renewable energy sources will also support decarbonisation goals, whether this is through on-site generation, renewable energy supply contracts, or power purchase agreements.   Quick energy wins Once you have the PUE covered and other monitoring processes in place, it’s time to start looking at reducing consumption. Many of the quick wins, in terms of greater energy efficiencies, are simple. Some operations run well established cooling systems, which may be very inefficient in terms of energy use. Knowing your current PUE may provide you with new information that will help you to make informed decisions on issues such as cooling systems. Likewise, monitoring energy use by site will enable anomalies to be quickly identified and dealt with. Another option is the installation of occupation sensors that will automatically switch off lights in empty rooms and adjust heating levels in accordance with building use. It can ultimately free up cash to invest in more efficient equipment and embrace smart energy solutions. This is an approach that is gaining traction among manufacturers and data centres alike. There is no single solution when it comes to optimising energy efficiency, and every business will benefit from bringing in expertise to identify the steps it can take to bring its energy use under control. There is still a huge role that mitigation and reduction can play in preserving the competitiveness of the UK data centre sector.

Picking an infrastructure management solution

By Carsten Ludwig, Market Manager, Reichle & De-Massari As we connect more hardware, and networks become more distributed and more complex, monitoring operational aspects of servers and switches, cooling and power equipment, and any other linked IT hardware becomes more difficult. Monitoring solutions have become essential to networks of all kinds. Although often confused, DCIM (Data Centre Infrastructure Management), AIM (Automated Infrastructure Management) and IIM (Intelligent Infrastructure Management) fulfil different, albeit overlapping, functions. Reichle & De-Massari pinpoints key differences and focus on applications and considerations when choosing a DCIM solution. Several factors are leading to demand for more advanced monitoring. One is size: the average data centre surface area is currently 9,000m2  and the world’s largest data centre, Range International Information Group, located in Langfang, China, measures almost 600km2. However, apart from size, distribution across multiple locations is adding to complexity. Edge and cloud facilities, on-premise equipment, ‘traditional’ data centres and hyperscale data centres are all combined to meet specific and ever-changing user needs.  It’s surprisingly common to find network managers carrying out inventory and management of physical infrastructure using Excel sheets - or even paper, pencil and post-its. However, developing realistic expansion plans and carrying out risk analyses are impossible, let alone complying with legislation and best practices governing data security and availability. Making infrastructural changes on the basis of incorrect, out-of-date and unreliable documentation is like walking a tightrope without a safety net. Introducing the right monitoring solution saves on equipment and operational costs, energy, maintenance and repairs, and ensures every port is optimally used. A closer look at the different options When it comes to monitoring, the choice needs to be made between AIM, IIM and DCIM. • IIM connects network devices using real-time network management tools and structured cabling, supporting management and speeding up fault-finding and repairs. It lists and details the entire physical infrastructure, automatically detecting IP devices and provides alerts. • DCIM integrates management of physical infrastructure, energy, risk, facilities and systems. It allows the user to visualise, analyse, manage, and optimise all the elements that make up a modern data centre and the relations between them. It can optimise physical infrastructure performance and efficiency, and help keep the data centre aligned with current needs. DCIM does more than provide alerts - it is essential to generating performance data which, in turn, can serve as the basis for improvements and enhancements which can be fed into a data centre asset management tool. Another important responsibility of data centre managers is cabling and connectivity management. DCIM software solutions are already catering to this requirement by using a software control layer to map and monitor cabling assets and physical connections in real time. In many cases, DCIM is exactly what’s needed - but you do have to be sure that you’ll be using enough features to warrant the investment. You need to ask yourself whether you have a real business case for monitoring everything across your infrastructure. Does the potential benefit outweigh the investment and the time and effort required to implement such a solution? For many large networks the answer will definitely be ‘yes’. For others, however, it will be ‘no’. In many other cases, AIM may be a better fit. • AIM is a specialised solution for tracing and monitoring all changes to a physical network, including switches, servers and patch panels. AIM systems gather data from RFID-based port sensors and provide real-time information about the cabling infrastructure, including asset management, planned and unplanned changes and alarms. These systems improve operational efficiency and facilitate ongoing management of the passive infrastructure. AIM systems offer functions for mapping, managing, analysing and planning cabling and network cabinets. The integrated hardware and software system automatically detects when cords are inserted or removed, and documents the cabling infrastructure, including connected equipment. AIM enables the optimisation of business processes from an IT infrastructure perspective. Since the entire infrastructure is represented in a consistent database in an AIM system, inquiries into resources such as free ports in network cabinets ducting capacity, or cabinet space, can be answered quickly and easily. Other immediate advantages include improved capacity utilisation of existing infrastructure, and simple and exact planning of changes and expansions. AIMs also offer planning tool capabilities to simulate the future expansion of networks, which helps IT managers better prepare the bill of materials required for implementing the project. AIM solutions can reduce incident resolution time, reducing mean-time-to-repair by 30-50%, thereby providing significant savings potentials in terms of both IT resources and reducing lost business output. An ideal solution would offer IIM, AIM and DCIM functionalities, and allow the user to pick, mix, and upgrade in line with their changing requirements. However, it’s also important to realise that the effective digitalisation of all management processes in a data centre will be only be possible once many of the functions described previously are in place. Software that allows equipment and systems in data centres and adjacent locations to ‘talk’ with each other should be in place by default. The extent and type of solution very strongly depends on the business model, service levels agreements, and complexity to be managed. For example, a few edge sites might not merit a fully-fledged software environment, but just a few specific features, whereas other networked locations other might need the full set. Ongoing insights into and analysis of requirements are a must. 

Avoiding ‘bottlenecks’: Moore’s Law must be addressed

The continually rising demand for data, combined with the ongoing improvement of computer performance under Moore’s Law may cause a ‘bottleneck’ in facility construction if supply chain disruption continues. According to Greger Ruud, Data Centre Specialist for Aggreko, the continued doubling of computer speed and capabilities under Moore’s Law is putting the data centre sector under strain as stakeholders look to upgrade existing infrastructure management facilities. With September's Statista reports demonstrating data consumption growth and real estate experts, JLL, predicting persistent supply chain delays causing delivery challenges into 2024, Greger is warning of a potential ‘bottleneck’ in construction if action is not taken. “The ongoing boom in worldwide data centre markets is undoubtedly something to be welcomed, but it does give rise to additional challenges construction stakeholders need to plan around,” he says. “Specifically, the supply chain must keep pace with this level of growth and improvement in computer performance, which is putting pressure on existing data centre apparatus. “It is now not uncommon to see facilities that were brought online as early as 18 months ago needing to upgrade entire halls to deal with this perfect storm of factors. However, a lack of availability for key equipment, including solutions required for load bank testing and utility provision, is causing a bottleneck at the least opportune time. This supply chain disruption must be worked around if the market is to continue meeting ongoing demand and accounting for increasingly powerful computers being developed and used by data consumers.” With refurbishment works a key priority across Europe and taking immovable project completion deadlines into account, the need for new strategies and thought around equipment procurement is becoming pressing. According to Greger, facility construction stakeholders should explore alternative approaches to the ongoing scarcity of load bank testing and utility provision solutions, if further disruption is to be avoided. “Issues experienced sourcing key equipment is already well known to the market, and these challenges are expected to continue into the short-to-medium term,” he concludes. “Consequently, those involved in retrofitting existing facilities cannot afford to stand still and be subjected to delays that may result in additional financial costs and reputational damage. “Testing, power generation and temperature control provision must therefore be immediately available to facilitate this boom, especially if energy provision requirements are continually changing in line with Moore’s Law. Temporary equipment hire could provide contractors with an effective way of keeping this disruption to a minimum, and I would encourage key stakeholders to get in touch with their suppliers and explore this option.”

Global DCIM market to reach £2.9bn by 2026

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for DCIM is estimated at £2 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach a revised size of £2.9 billion by 2026, according to new research from Research and Markets. Solutions, one of the segments analysed in the report, is projected to record 11.7% CAGR and reach £2.2 billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the services segment is readjusted to a revised 12.4% CAGR for the next seven-year period. The COVID-19 pandemic has led telecom and cloud service providers to experience unprecedented demand, causing concerns regarding the viability of data centres that are involved in hosting services for these operators. Data centres were facing capacity and power challenges even prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, with cooling issues accounting for nearly a third of unplanned outages. Maximising the performance of data centres has always been a complex topic - even in normal conditions - and are now becoming even more challenging after the COVID-19 crisis. The heightened customer demand has resulted in a rising pressure on thermal and energy performance. Data centre operating teams now have the capability of monitoring thermal performance of the premises without being present on site. Creating an immersive 3D digital replica of a data centre can help team members remotely monitor sites, enabling them to gain early alerts and insight into any concerning cooling and thermal metrics. Advanced DCIM platforms have been developed for supporting secure remote network access from remote locations, thereby allowing employees to complete their work from virtually any location. The DCIM market in the US is estimated at £1.1 billion in 2022. China is forecast to reach a projected market size of £191.8 million by the year 2026, trailing a CAGR of 17.4% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 10.5% and 10.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 11.4% CAGR.