Today Corporations find themselves facing a growing concern, one that can have severe repercussion. Something of this magnitude has not happened since the late 90’s when companies were hard pressed to fix the Y2K bug. The problem is that Data Centers have outgrown their facility capacities and are unable to sustain the increasing requirements that newer systems demand. In an effort to save money, optimize space, and increase processing power, Data Centers began moving from mainframes to blade servers. This move, although beneficial, has some drawbacks. The newer equipment requires much more power and cooling to maintain the status quo. Downtime in any Data Center is very costly for companies and because of this, many find it necessary to build new Data Centers to ease the burden and reduce downtime.

With many companies either facing massive upgrades or construction of completely new Data Centers, managing their Connectivity, Power and Assets can rapidly become more difficult with outdated tools such as spreadsheets. The task of coordinating multiple Data Center sites can be challenging and absurdly complicated when using primitive tools for documenting and managing Assets & Connectivity. The key to solving this dilemma which afflicts so many Data Centers is the institution of a fully integrated planning and managing database. OBTAIN 24/7 software enables planners, managers, facility personnel, IT engineers and vendors to plan, track and manage all Assets and Connectivity from multiple locations, in a single database. Keeping data in a single database that has secure rollback functionality can greatly enhance the workflow, productivity and efficiency of a Data Center.

OBTAIN offers users the ability to document the most subtle details; from cables to devices and everything in between. In addition to its superior proficiency to manage Connectivity & Assets, this database can track environmental & power levels of devices and allow users the ability to detect potential problem areas. Having this capability can help planners and managers avoid dangerous overloads to their infrastructure and enhance their stability. Proper planning and management with OBTAIN can increase Data Centers uptime, efficiency and productivity. Click here to receive a personalized WebEx presentation of OBTAIN.

As a company’s Data Center grows, so does their demand for processing and storing large quantities of Data. Many Data Centers, large and small a-like often find it cumbersome to document, let alone plan for changes in their Data Centers. Typically these companies use archaic methods for documenting their infrastructure and rely heavily on individual programs such as spreadsheets, flowcharts and CAD Drawings. For companies that do not encounter changes of great magnitude or frequency these methods may still work, although not efficiently. However, most Data Centers do require constant alterations of their framework to support the ever increasing need for Data processing and storage. Planning for a new infrastructure can be an agonizing process when trying to maintain redundancy paths for connectivity, power and ventilation. When companies use separate non-integrated programs to document their Data Center framework, it can quickly cause more problems than solutions at critical moments.

The reality of Data Centers is that change is asynchronous. In any given moment, several upgrades are in the process of being planned, modified and implemented at the same instant. Some of these changes deliver on schedule, others are delayed and some are completely abandoned. In order for workers to maintain some sort of sync with these events, they often have to attend countless meetings to be informed of how the changes will impact them and adjust their schedules accordingly. Having multiple workers operating with several different programs can lead to data not being updated concurrently, double allocation of resources or incomplete documentation. This effectively leaves each worker to maintain their own database of assets, actions and relationships which pertain to their specific responsibilities. A work process that creates a constant struggle to maintain harmony within a Data Center such as this will eventually cause a very expensive and detrimental breakdown.

Planning, for some companies, is a fleeting afterthought, as their approach is “we need this done now” and “just make it happen”. Philosophies such as this cause more harm than good and create unnecessary work for the future. Using the messy spaghetti operational approach for Data Centers may work in the short term, but will spawn further inefficiencies and create unneeded stress. Taking the time to initially plan a complete strategy and multiple scenarios can save a Data Center time and money while improving efficiency. Anticipating problematic situations in advance and allowing for a clearly defined design will make maintaining such a process much easier for future developments. With OBTAIN, Data Centers can improve their workflow while achieving planning with certainty. Click here to receive a custom demonstration of OBTAIN and see how we can help your Data Center.

Everyone knows that the most crucial element in the design of a Data Center is providing redundancy throughout the framework. The last thing a company needs is downtime due to inefficient planning which can decimate the bottom line. It is estimated that large corporations could lose upwards of $50,000/minute during an outage, so insuring that redundancies are in place is simply a good business practice. Accomplishing this task can be daunting, but with the right tools and strategies this can be effectively done.

It is preposterous to think that Data Centers would put their redundancy planning at risk, but many still do by choosing to use non-integrated programs to facilitate their infrastructure designs. The danger of using multiple programs to document assets and pathways is that they lack integration. Configuration data is very complex. Even small objects often have many critical relationships and if one of these links is missed or overlooked, failure is sure to ensue.

Using the OBTAIN suite of products can enhance redundancy planning through its tightly integrated design and extensive relationship pathways. With automatic error and consistency checking deeply employed in the software, planners are assured that their data will be accurately documented. OBTAIN provides a multi-user concurrent access environment to allow planners to work from a single database, and offers the flexibility of a non-destructive, scenario planning workflow option. Since logical and physical path diagrams are automatically generated, visually charting these redundancy pathways is quick and accurate. It is at the discretion of the planner as to how intricate to make their power, connectivity and asset redundancy in OBTAIN. Click to sign up for a personalize demo of OBTAIN.