Unexpected device failures are a nightmare for data center operators. When a critical piece of equipment stops working, the fallout can be massive: downtime, lost visibility into operations, and costly outages. One minute everything looks fine; the next, you’re blind to what’s happening in your infrastructure.
Ask yourself: Would you know the moment a key device in your data center fails?
That’s the question that matters most. Traditional monitoring and alarms often aren’t enough. Device failures can be silent, slipping past your defenses without warning. In this blog, we’ll explore how smarter Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software, like Modius® OpenData®, helps detect these failures in real time using advanced monitoring strategies. This isn’t about more alarms; it’s about better awareness.
Missing Metrics, Hidden Risks
Many devices in your data center simply don’t give you the data you need. You may assume you’re seeing the whole picture, but gaps in visibility are more common than most operators realize.
A large number of devices don’t report critical metrics such as total power usage, runtime, or energy consumption. Some manufacturers limit what their gear shares. Others lack support for open standards, which makes it harder to normalize and use the data across your operations.
When Alarms Don’t Fire
If a piece of equipment stops reporting and no one is watching, you may not know it’s gone until a bigger issue pops up. The harsh truth is that standard alarms can’t catch everything. If your monitoring system relies on data from a failed device, it won’t trigger the alert you expect. That silence can break more than just visibility. It disrupts how your data center operates.
- Alarm logic that uses failed devices won’t trigger, even if something’s wrong.
- Calculations that rely on data from multiple devices will break if any one device drops offline.
- Reports become unreliable, trending stops, and alerts lose meaning.
And it gets more complicated.
Device Interdependency Makes Failure Detection Harder
Some equipment relies on data from upstream or neighboring devices. When one fails, others suffer too, even if they look like they’re still running.
A branch circuit monitor (BCM), for example, might need a voltage reading from a power distribution unit (PDU). If the PDU goes dark, the BCM might still report but the data is no longer valid. These dependencies create hidden weak points. If you’re not watching both the source and the dependent device, you might not catch the problem until it’s too late.
That’s why a smarter approach to DCIM is essential.
Stronger Monitoring Starts with Smarter Calculations
Modern DCIM software helps close these gaps by detecting when devices stop reporting and adapting in real time. Modius OpenData is built with this kind of resiliency in mind.
Here’s how it works:
- Create calculated points that fill in for missing data or flag devices when they go silent. This means your alerts are still valid, even when something upstream has failed.
- Use presets or default values to keep key metrics flowing, even when the source device isn’t.
- Gain visibility into hard-to-reach data points that aren’t provided by vendors out of the box.
This approach lets you monitor what matters most, even when some pieces go offline, and avoid data reporting gaps
Monitor Device Health Beyond the Basics
It’s not just about measuring performance; it’s about measuring whether your tools can still measure at all.
Build alarms that tell you when input data disappears. Instead of assuming “no alarm means all clear,” know when a data source has dropped out. Track the health of key supporting devices like power feeds, communication channels, or gateways. Use calculated points to show when a value is missing or looks suspicious, helping you react before it turns into downtime.
By treating device communication and data flow as part of your monitoring strategy, you build a more complete picture of your data center.
Trend and Store Everything, Not Just What’s Native
Calculated points should be treated just like native device data. With OpenData, they are.
- Every calculated metric is stored, trended over time, and fully available for alarms and reporting.
- That gives you historical context on everything, not just what a vendor happens to support.
- It helps you troubleshoot faster and spot patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed.
When data loss happens, having a record of what went wrong makes all the difference.
Why Modius OpenData Excels at Device Failure Detection
At Modius, we designed OpenData to do more than just collect metrics. It’s built from the ground up to make sure you see when something is wrong, even if the device itself can’t tell you.
Calculated Points Are First-Class Citizens
- In OpenData, derived data is fully visible, trended, and alarmable, just like native values.
- If a device doesn’t report what you need, you can build the logic to get it another way.
- You’ll never miss an alert because of a missing vendor feature.
Data Resilience Through Device Linking
- Missing data can be filled in using upstream or neighboring devices, keeping your monitoring strong even in a partial failure.
- Redundant paths help ensure that key metrics don’t disappear when a single device fails.
Built for Real-Time Awareness
- Every device is tracked for communication failures, and you can see the status at a glance.
- “Bubble up” alarm visibility shows you what’s going wrong without digging through layers.
- Notifications aren’t limited to environmental or power alarms, they include device communication and connectivity issues.
Reliable Monitoring Across All Your Sites
- A distributed architecture keeps monitoring local even if a remote site loses its network connection.
- When the connection is restored, data is forwarded automatically to fill in the gap.
- This ensures your central view of operations stays accurate without interruption.
These features work together to help reduce unplanned downtime and improve response times across your facility.
Know When Devices Fail Before It Costs You
Every data center operator has faced a moment where they thought everything was fine until it wasn’t. When devices fail quietly, they take your visibility with them. And when your view is broken, so is your ability to respond.
Modern DCIM software like Modius OpenData gives you the tools to detect device failure as it happens. By using calculated points, smarter alarm logic, and a platform that treats all data equally, you gain control even when parts of your infrastructure go dark.
If a critical device failed in your data center right now, would you know? Let’s make sure you always do. Talk to us at Modius.
We are passionate about empowering our clients to run more profitable data centers while providing unmatched visibility into operational data. Modius has been delivering DCIM solutions since 2007. We are based in San Francisco, are ISO/IEC 27001 certified and proudly certified as a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB). Contact us at sales@modius.com or (888) 323.0066 to learn more.
