IT departments face a wide variety of budgetary pressures, which means that finding more efficient ways to deliver the same services is always a goal for technology staff. One of the biggest sources of inefficiency for many companies is the corporate data center, which can create substantial costs that have nothing to do with actual IT in the form of power and cooling needs. Companies are increasingly looking for ways to make these operations more efficient and turning to data center infrastructure management solutions as a result. Additionally, many businesses have found that by switching to a managed services provider for their data center, they are able to access the gains of instituting such technology without the upfront costs and complexity.
A recent Navigant Research study found that the market for data center infrastructure management technology is expected to grow more than sixfold in the next six years as data center operators take advantage of new solutions that offer visibility into both key facilities metrics and server management variables. A separate study of one DCIM solution conducted by Forrester found that the return on investment in terms of power and space planning was 93 percent, while the ROI in terms of energy monitoring was 216 percent.
“DCIM – the software, systems, and services that monitor, measure, and help control data centers’ IT and facilities infrastructure – is quickly becoming a must-have technology for managers of modern data centers,” said Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Research.
Given the substantial savings companies can achieve by using state-of-the-art monitoring and management tools, they should look to leverage data center solutions that incorporate these technologies. Managed services providers should have granular insight over their facilities that enables them to create tangible operational savings and, in turn, pass those savings along to clients.