Bridging the gap between IoT and Asset Management
By Sean Gately
This rapid change in data center architecture puts traditional data center management tools at a disadvantage and adds strain to IT and Facility professionals. Managing a traditional modern data center while also trying to manage the Internet of Things devices requires a whole new level of wholistic monitoring and is a complex and complicated task.
Traditional asset management in the data center will now need to extend outward to account for edge-based data centers and new smart devices with all new ways to monitor and manage them. With less in-person interaction these edge deployments will need to utilize machine learning to understand their own data as well as how they interact with interconnected machines, so they can continue to operate efficiently and understand when human interaction is needed and notify you.
Some IoT assets will need to be tracked in real-time with location services as previously fixed assets become more mobile such as containerized data centers. The need to manage capacity management at the edge may require “pop-up” data centers to be deployed and monitored and tracked in real time. The ability to understand where capacity is needed is a core component of DCIM tools, the need to know where capacity is needed and track capacity in real-time and understand how that interaction will affect the daisy chain is a function of a smart data center infrastructure management platform.
With such a diverse IT environment IT and Operations will need comprehensive analytics with both a hierarchical and distributed view into systems that reach as deep as the sensor level and are flexible enough to bring on and monitor ANY new device introduced into the ecosystem. The ability to communicate with a diverse set of protocols and systems software to create an overall view allows the greatest level of system management and is critical in the IoT world.
The new smart data center architecture will be flexible enough to extend to the edge while monitoring and controlling and understanding all devices under its umbrella. This data center 3.0 will be smart enough to make some its own decisions and understand when it needs human interaction. The ability to add capacity where and when it’s needed and interact with interconnected systems in real-time, anywhere, will be a core strategy.
As you can see, asset management in the IoT world has dramatically changed and a new smart data center infrastructure management framework is needed. Smart Data infrastructure management is about having the flexibility to monitor and understand ALL critical equipment and smart assets in your IT systems and has the ability to go way beyond predictive algorithms into true machine learning artificial intelligence to help you understand and optimize your smart data center and assets.
Modius is a modern IoT analytics infrastructure and smart data center infrastructure management platform. Founded in 2004, Modius has been at the forefront of technology innovation and is the leader in IoT smart asset management.
