English 
Japanese 
Part Two of Two
In part one of “The Power of DCIM is Power State Normalization,” – we established that Power Management is the foundation of Data Center Infrastructure Management and that normalizing power measurement methodologies are critical to rapidly understanding your power state.
A powerful DCIM solution uses normalization to present a unified view of the power state of your assets, removing the need to process or interpret state and enabling you to focus on your job – managing your power distribution.
In the real world, you need to provide operators with a simple apples-to-apples comparison across your diverse power assets so that you can connect the dots between gear without distraction due to raw structural differences.
For example, an ATS may be 3 phase and feed multiple downstream devices like floor PDUs and panels that ultimately feed single-phase iPDUs that supply servers. Therefore, you need to know your power loads with respect to capability, and in that analysis, the question of where the transition from 3 phase to single phase occurs is irrelevant. Instead, you need to know where your power load sits and if you are pushing the limits of your capacity or failover capability.
Normalization lets you see that power is at 40% of capability on the ATS, the PDUs are at 30% and 35% of capability, and down the stream to power strips that are at 30%, 35%, 42%, for example. That one power strip that is at 42% of capacity is your concern – in a failover, it may exceed an operational target of 80% capacity. How these devices measure their power is not your focus – just the final analysis of load and capacity. This is where the normalization of measurement methods shines. Any device in your infrastructure, regardless of vendor or measurement methodology, has a unified presentation of load.
The result is that an operator with virtually no training can view an asset and instantly understand the load and status. Removing the interpretation of values and showing a normalized load reduces the chance for error and provides a simple instant status – this is the power of measurement normalization.
The benefits do not stop there. Having a normalized power load and power utilization as a percentage of capacity has far-reaching capabilities.
Normalization can drive reports that show like-for-like load status across your infrastructure, giving “at-a-glance” status in a single report without navigating the UI.
Alarms can be defined for the resulting power loads that are uniform across your diverse hardware. These alarms are based on 40% failover and 80% maximum thresholds regardless of the power model. This Power Management approach allows simulations and complex planning scenarios to show the effect of changes in an easy-to-recognize format for instant understanding of impact.
Normalization of measurement and monitoring methodologies is the new standard for managing power distribution in DCIM.
Does your solution normalize power for easy assimilation? OpenData does this today. It’s one of many DCIM leadership modules that can work independently or together to give you an incredible view of your data center’s capabilities and potential.
You can reach us at sales@modius.com or 1-888.323.0066 (Toll-free)
