Top 5 Things You Should Know About Data Center Infrastructure(DCIM)

Top 5 Things You Should Know About Data Center Infrastructure(DCIM)

What is Data Center Infrastructure?

Data center infrastructure is a crucial element of the business strategies of many companies. Managed Services Providers (MSPs) and cloud-based developers require the rich connectivity options that only a data center’s infrastructure can offer. However, with so many data center facilities, it can be tricky to decide which ones can provide superior services today and boost tomorrow’s technological revolution.
The core physical or hardware-based resources and components that make up a data center – including all IT infrastructure devices, equipment, and technologies – are referred to as data center infrastructure. It’s modeled and identified in a design plan that involves a comprehensive list of the infrastructure components required to build a data center.

A Data Center infrastructure may include:

  • Computers
  • Networking equipment (Routers or switches)
  • Servers
  • Storage
  • Security
  • Data Center management applications

An Overview of Data Center Infrastructure Architecture

The computational power, storage, and applications needed to sustain an enterprise business are all housed in the data center. All content is sourced or passed through the data center infrastructure, which is at the heart of the IT architecture. Performance, resiliency, and scalability must be carefully considered when designing the data center infrastructure.

What is Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)?

The processes, guidelines, tools, and methodologies used for provisioning, governance, and overall management of data center assets and infrastructures are referred to as data center infrastructure management (DCIM). It offers a comprehensive approach for the operation and maintenance of an enterprise data center and includes information technology resources, including power, cooling, lighting, and physical infrastructure.

What is Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE)?

Data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE) is a metric for assessing a data center’s power or energy efficiency. It entails assessing and measuring a data center’s overall energy consumption, especially related to the energy consumption of IT devices and equipment.

What are the 5 Things You Need to Know About Data Center Infrastructure?

  • Data Center Redundancy:

While most data centers will say that their systems are fully redundant, the terminology has become so muddled in recent years that their exact backup capacities may be unclear. The first thing to look for is the efficiency of the data center’s uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems. A dependable facility would have a comprehensive auditing policy to ensure that backup batteries are still ready to go.

UnitedLayer’s N+2 redundant chiller configuration and redundant water sources ensure consistent temperatures are maintained throughout our facilities; also, our networks are at least 2N redundant, and they include numerous cabinet redundant panels, redundant UPS, an automatic transfer generator, cabs, versatile capacity, and high density (20KW).

  • Power Density:

Many data center cabinets were designed with lower power densities in mind than most current servers. However, significant transformations in server technology have changed the way facilities measure their power capacity over the last decade. Watts per square foot used to be the traditional unit, but data centers now calculate power density at the server rack level. Ten years ago, 4-5 KW per rack was considered average; today, that number is closer to 15-20 KW per rack in high-performance facilities.

For instance, UnitedLayer has guaranteed power density to support current and future technologies with 20KW and 2N power.

  • Uptime SLA Requirements:

Any data center infrastructure evaluation should start with a thorough review of the Service Level Agreement (SLA). This agreement specifies the services that a data center promises to provide and the penalties imposed if it fails to do so. Uptime SLAs are important for consumers looking to secure their data and assets because they are legally binding documents.

UnitedLayer’s G3 Private Cloud provides all the power of the cloud without the pain of running it, so your IT team can focus on tasks essential to the growth of your business. Also, G3 Private Cloud is a fully managed cloud by our team of experts 24/7/365 days with a 15 mins response time SLA. Also, we provide software-defined network, compute, and storage resources with 99.999% high availability N+M clusters.

  • Remote Hands:

Providing services via a data center can be challenging at times. Experienced IT personnel may lack the planning and expertise required to implement systems and develop networks within the data center environment. A facility offering skilled technicians who work together for migration and integration will help customers focus on services that benefit their businesses.

When problems develop, having remote hands staff available 24/7/365 to resolve issues quickly reduces the negative impact of downtime. These technicians are also familiar with the data center environment and can handle repairs and other emergencies more efficiently than external IT teams. With an excellent remote hands team in place, service-driven businesses like MSPs can focus more on developing new services instead of troubleshooting for their customers. Customers can use UnitedLayer to get a visual snapshot of all their devices in the colocation data center, track their output, and manage these devices without sending technical staff to the facility.

  • Visibility:

Understanding what goes on inside a data center is essential for any organization that provides services through that infrastructure. Customers have to know how traffic affects power and network performance to plan and determine how their assets are best deployed. This information is provided by data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software. Protection is also a significant concern in terms of visibility. Sophisticated DCIM systems make it easier to monitor properties and ensure that all equipment is where it should be at all times.

According to Gartner, “Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools monitor, measure, manage and control data center utilization and energy consumption of all sending IT-related equipment (such as servers, storage, and network switches) and facility infrastructure components (such as power distribution units [PDUs] and computer room air conditioners [CRACs]).”

Meeting compliance regulations can be challenging without the right data center partner. With SSAE-18 certification incorporating controls & requirements and a robust infrastructure that is regularly audited, UnitedLayer has the unique ability to assist our customers in achieving SSAE18 SOC1/2, PCI, FedRAMP/FISMA & HIPAA compliance if needed.

Why choose us?

UnitedLayer provides the Colocation services from one of the largest data centers in San Francisco, USA, at 200 Paul Ave. Our long list of managed services enables enterprises to modernize their infrastructure and improve their responsiveness, resource utilization, scalability, and agility resulting in better customer experience and faster time to market.

With more than two decades of experience and a pool of experts in leading technologies – we enable enterprises, SMB’s, government agencies, and start-ups to reap the maximum benefits from their multicloud investments.

To get a better insight into what else UnitedLayer has got in store, Sign up for a free demo today.

How Is Demand Driving Data Center Market Growth?

How Is Demand Driving Data Center Market Growth?

Technology is rapidly changing the economic landscape, creating new opportunities for businesses to explore how they can broaden their IT solutions to take advantage of emerging markets. However, many companies aren’t considering how data centers, especially those in smaller operations, can play a crucial role in assisting them in leveraging new technology in a way that allows them to be more effective and efficient.

Data management in-house, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Even big companies such as Cisco plan to shut down internal data centers to save energy and infrastructure costs.

The solution? Outsource data management.

More enterprises are outsourcing their data center operations to third-party providers who specialize in doing so. Data centers that provide physical space, power, and cooling systems for servers and connections to local communication networks are particularly common. UnitedLayer has over 40,000 square feet of fully redundant data center space, which is not in the earthquake fault, liquefaction, or landslide zone for the next 100-year and is seismically rated for protection against earthquakes.

What are the Key Drivers of Growth?

  1. Internet of Things: Using artificial intelligence, data, analytics, security, and communication, the US is one of the market leaders for industrial IoT-led technologies.
  2. Submarine cable projects along the east coast: These bring incredibly high-speed data to the East Coast from Europe and South America, where they are transferred to data centers.
  3. Cloud Storage: The use of cloud computing services and applications in the United States continues to grow rapidly, leading to extensive cloud-based data centers.
  4. Tax Incentives: Data center growth in recent years has been concentrated in tax incentive regions, including government and local governments that provide incentives for investment (often energy-based)

How to meet these growing data needs?

More data centers are being built to meet these growing data needs, ranging from Tier 1 (least complex and secure) to Tier 4 (highly complex with high IT/security requirements), usually hyperscale centers. UnitedLayer, for instance, has a Tier-3+ data center with superior outage protection to avoid any unplanned downtimes also greater than N+1 architecture for uninterrupted power and cooling.

How to meet future storage needs?

Automation can increase data-center efficiency by allowing a single administrator to handle thousands of servers. Advanced IT equipment and data center infrastructure management software providers are driving this automation initiative. 

Our Colocation services come with on-demand scalability where customers can add additional storage, compute, and networking resources to meet the increased business demands.

How can UnitedLayer help you?

Data centers serve as the basis for network and computing solutions that will enable enterprises to take advantage of emerging markets and keep up with rapidly evolving technology. 

UnitedLayer’s 200 Paul data center is the only data center in San Francisco which is built on bedrock with Zone 4 construction and is not in a 500-year flood plain, a Tier-3+ data center with superior outage protection to avoid any unplanned downtimes, Remote Management services like Multicloud Dashboard for entire colocation facilities showcasing a single infra environment, SSAE-18 certification incorporating controls and requirements, also a robust infrastructure that is regularly audited. We have a growing list of managed services, which helps corporations restructure their infrastructure and enhance their responsiveness, optimization, resource efficiency, and flexibility.

Visit UnitedLayer’s website to learn more about the different services offered and how you can get the best out of them.

Smart Hands – Managed Services

Smart Hands – Managed Services

Agility is the key to handling every single process and task that is a part of cloud infrastructure management, and for your organization to deliver results, you need diversity in the workforce, flexibility in operations, and be able to pay special attention to factors such as infrastructure compliance and change management. So, one small decision to manage a single aspect of your organization internally results in managing a multitude of complex and ever-growing number processes at the infrastructure level.

A trusted managed services provider has all the processes, infrastructure, and manpower in place to handle the most complex of problems on a daily basis. As experts in the field, they focus on every single aspect while having contingency plans for the possible challenges that may lie ahead. Managed Services are integral to any company and its IT resources, to be able to optimize processes efficiently and cut down on maintenance costs and time of your IT team. 

It’s important to organizations across the globe that data centers be regularly examined and maintained to ensure smooth operation without any disturbance. Smart Hands Service provided by UnitedLayer offers its customers exclusive onsite technical assistance and troubleshooting services.

UnitedLayer provides hardware installation and decommissioning services, fiber circuit installation to reduce signal errors, device management for remote device configuration, monitoring, alerting, escalation to assess their workloads, and identify potential hardware failures before they result in downtime. All these services come with 24x7x365 support, with highly trained certified experts and skilled technicians with a maximum of 15 minutes of response time globally.

Visit UnitedLayer’s website to learn more about the different kinds of services offered and how you can get the best out of them.

 

 

 

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