Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) refers to the processes, guidelines, tools and methodologies used for the provisioning, governance and overall management of data center assets and infrastructures. It provides a comprehensive approach to operating and maintaining an enterprise class data center and encompasses IT resources like hardware, software, networks and facilities, including power, cooling, lighting and overall physical infrastructure.

Functions of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)
DCIM bridges information across organizational silos, including Data Center Operations, Facilities, and IT teams to maximize utilization of the entire data center white space. An organization needs ITSM and BMS, but DCIM is the solution that completes the toolkit to have the visibility and information you need to properly plan and deploy equipment for data center projects to support business/IT services. Simply put, data center management is not complete without a DCIM tool.
DCIM:

• Manages physical data center infrastructure assets, relationships, and capacity:
  • Locations of racks, servers, network, storage, and blades
  • Utilization and capacity of resources to support equipment, e.g. power, space, and cooling
  • Physical relationships and connectivity between equipment, down to the port level
  • Monitors, trends, and alarms on equipment and resources supporting mission critical facility
• Automates visual documentation (e.g. rack elevations) by providing full 3D specifications of assets with high-fidelity front and back images, exact U position, and dimensional, weight, and data and power port information
• Tracks workflow within the data center for physical asset moves, adds, and changes of server/network equipment
• Tracks and monitors environmental conditions, energy efficiency, and availability, and use of key resources (space, power, cooling, and network/power connections)