Modius Data Center Blog

Enterprise software Proof-of-Concepts (POCs) are often challenging to administer and implement as they typically require the vendor to train, install and implement the software in the client’s facility.  This process can prove costly and time consuming for both the vendor and the client. 

Modius has solved this challenge by creating a new offering for a “virtual” proof of concept (vPOC).  The vPOC allows customers to try Modius OpenData in a secure sandbox environment without installing any local software. 

The database is pre-populated with a typical Data Center environment including a full range of data center equipment, including typical ‘heavy equipment’ such as UPS, CRAC, Genset, PDU, as well as rack-level equipment such as iPDU’s and wireless temperature sensors from leading equipment providers including HP, IBM, APC, Emerson, RFCODE, and Server Tech.

The vPOC provides a fully-functional instance of the Modius OpenData system that the user can manage and administer.  The Graphical User Interface (GUI) allows the user to drill through to each device and identify which alarm points are being collected, how they are correlated and distributed, their polling rates, and which “real-time” alarms are critical or require immediate action. Typical customers who are signing up for a Modius vPOC are looking to replace several existing monitoring point solutions (e.g. homegrown, ALC or DataTrax).  In addition, they may be looking at Modius OpenData’s “multi-site” capability to consolidate existing infrastructure monitoring across multiple locations with a single repository of easy accessed and reported information for availability, capacity, and performance utilization.

The process to get started is as simple as signing up for the 15-Day free trial.  To get started, please see our vPOC registration page for a simple form to have one of our team contact you.

I spend a great deal of time talking about data center efficiency and the technologies available to assist in driving efficiency up. Additionally a great deal of my time is spent discussing how to determine success in the process(es). What I find is that there is still a fundamental missing appreciation for the need for 'continuous' real-time monitoring to measure success using industry norms such as PUE, DCIE, TCE and SWaP. I can't tell you how many times someone will tell me that their PUE is a given value, and look at me oddly when I ask 'WHEN was that?'. It would be like me saying 'I remember that I was hungry sometime this year'. The first response would clearly be 'WHEN was that?'

Most best practice guidelines and organizations involved here, (such as The Green Grid, and ITIL) are very clear that the improvement process must be continuous, and therefore the monitoring in support of that goal must also be. PUE for instance WILL vary from moment to moment based upon time of day and day of year. It is greatly affected by IT loads AND the weather for example. PUE therefore needs to be a running figure, and ideally monitored regularly enough that the Business IT folks can detremine trending and other impacts of new business applications, infrastructure investments, and operational changes as they affect the bottom line.

Monitoring technologies should be deployed that are installed permanently. In general, 'more is better' for data center monitoring. The more meters, values, sensors and instrumentation you can find and monitor, the more likely you'll have the raw information needed to analyze the data center's performance. Remember, PUE is just ONE KPI that has enough backing to be considered an indicator of success or progress. There surely will be many other KPIs determined internally which will require various sets of raw data points. More *IS* better!

We all get hungry every 4 hours, why would we monitor our precious data centers any less often?

While I've seen my share of some pristine new data centers over the past few years, as well as a huge number of large scale retro-fit projects where old centers are being turned into new usable data center space, I have also seen an alarming number of older 'house of cards' data centers that are up in modern production and appear to be 'hands-off'.

These data centers are typically chock full of older devices and interconnects that were passed down from generation to generation of IT managers, only to realize that what they inherited was unmanageable. While it is true that these data centers will ultimately find their way into extinction in a world focused on operational efficiency and pro-active management and best practices, we can all feel the pain involved when we encounter something like this.

Above is one of the most interesting centers I've seen, and would appear to have conflicting priorities as to what is required to move forward. While I don't have a comprehensive sequence of steps required to migrate to a highly supportable, efficient and monitored data center, let me suggest one step that will help tremendously... Find the YELLOW patch cord and disconnect it.

Seriously, when I saw this photo I had to laugh and take a second look. Was it some new thermal blanketing technology? Or a way to eliminate blanking panels? The reason I make light here is that there are countless data centers that are in similiar out-of-spec designs and would benefit from adopting new data center technologies, new power distribution, cooling and monitoring solutions, but are challenged by WHERE TO BEGIN and the magnitude of the task at hand.

In the monitoring world for instance where Modius delivers value, we regularly find data centers with NO VISIBILITY to their energy usage and easily can identify hundreds or thousands of points of monitorable data that would help get energy usage under control. We are ready willing and able to take on chaos and make sense of it.