Digital Realty expresses need for Hierarchical Design in DCIM to organize the data

Before David Schirmacher joined Digital Realty trust we would regularly have chats that could easily last hours.  I don't get a chance to chat with David as much now that he is Sr VP of Data Center Operations, but we still connect in many ideas.  Digital Realty has a paper it released on DCIM.  And a couple of things reminded me how we think the same.

And David has a hierarchy which i would have drawn from the bottom up, but David has drawn from top down.

Here is more information from the press release.

Digital Realty Addresses Challenges of Establishing Successful DCIM Platform

 

White paper explores the challenges of DCIM platforms and provides a comparative outlook on Digital Realty’s newly launched DCIM solution 

 

San Francisco, CA – July 23, 2013 – Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center solutions, today announced the release of a white paper titled, “Real-Time Monitoring for Data Centers: Comprehensive DCIM Solution Creates Connectivity-Rich Environment.” The paper, authored by David Schirmacher, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Operations for Digital Realty, explores the challenges inherent in establishing a successful data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform and introduces EnVision, Digital Realty’s recently launched DCIM solution.

Historically, vendors have approached DCIM as a hardware problem by implementing specialized equipment in an attempt to achieve a real-time monitoring and management platform for the interdependent systems across IT and infrastructure. However, the challenge with today’s DCIM platforms isn’t with the hardware, but rather it’s with the data that’s being managed, monitored and analyzed. In short, today’s DCIM solutions need to provide a significantly more comprehensive view of all of the resources within a data center – from the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that form the backbone of a facility’s infrastructure to the servers and racks that compose the heart of the IT setup.

The paper explains how a data-driven, connected view of a data center enables data center operators to realize the capacity they need in order to help their firms effectively grow their businesses and to ensure their data centers are yielding optimal results. In particular, with EnVision, Digital Realty’s DCIM solution, the company’s customers gain increased visibility into data center operations, the ability to analyze data in a manner that is digestible and actionable, a user interface and data displays/reports that are tailored to data center operators, and access to historical as well as predictive data.

Interested in sharing some insights from the white paper with your Twitter followers? Check out our list of interesting facts pulled from the paper:

• #DCIM is an emerging form of #datacenter mngt that bridges gap between traditional facilities systems& #IT systems http://ow.ly/neWSD
• #DCIM solutions must allow users to view info about the #datacenter in a truly connected sense http://ow.ly/neWSD
• The issue at the core of the #DCIM puzzle is stranded data, per @drdatacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• The focus shifts from displaying data to managing data when looking at #DCIM from an operator’s perspectivehttp://ow.ly/neWSD
• “#DCIM is not a hardware problem, it is a data problem” per @drdatacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• A typical #datacenter, might have 10,000 data points which can turn into billions of #datapoints a year http://ow.ly/neWSD#DCIM
• A typical #datacenter, if it is fully instrumented, might have 5,000 or 10,000 #datapoints http://ow.ly/neWSD #DCIM
• @drdatacenters builds a comprehensive #DCIM solution with real-time monitoring for #datacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• Key to a comprehensive #DCIM solution is recognizing the breadth & diversity of the available informationhttp://ow.ly/neWSD
• “Real-Time Monitoring for #DataCenters: Comp #DCIM Solution Creates Connectivity-Rich Enviro http://ow.ly/neWSD via@drdatacenters

 

To view the full paper, click here: http://ow.ly/neWSD

Ah, figured out how DCIM asset deployment should work, do you see the Information Architecture

I am having fun expressing some of my views of DCIM.  One area I don't think I've heard anyone discuss is the Information Architecture of their DCIM solution.

What is Information Architecture?

Information architecture is a specialized skill set that interprets information and expresses distinctions between signs and systems of signs. More concretely, it involves the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that the intended audience can understand quickly, if not inherently, and then easily retrieve the information for which they are searching^{[2][page needed]}. The organization structure is usually hierarchical, but can have other structures, such as concentric or even chaotic^{[2][page needed]}. Typically this is required in activities such as library systems, content management systems,web development, user interactions, database development, computer programming, technical writing, enterprise architecture, and critical system software design. Information architecture originates, to some degree, in the library sciences. Many schools with library and information science departments teach information architecture.^[6]

In the context of information systems design, information architecture refers to the analysis and design of the data stored by information systems, concentrating on entities, their attributes, and their interrelationships. It refers to the modeling of data for an individual database and to the corporate data models that an enterprise uses to coordinate the definition of data in several (perhaps scores or hundreds) distinct databases. The "canonical data model" is applied to integration technologies as a definition for specific data passed between the systems of an enterprise. At a higher level of abstraction, it may also refer to the definition of data stores.

Why do you need an information architecture? For the same reason you need architects to design a building to make sure the end user purpose is met, but there is more to good architecture than does it work.  A good architecture has three qualities.

Three Principles of Good Architecture

The Roman architect Vitruvius in his treatise on architecture, De Architectura, asserted that there were three principles of good architecture:

• Firmatis (Durability) - It should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
• Utilitas (Utility) - It should be useful and function well for the people using it.
• Venustatis (Beauty) - It should delight people and raise their spirits.

Most would blow off the third principle.  How many users of DCIM delight in their time spent in the system and feel their spirits raised?  

If you don't think Beauty is important.  Than you don't get the way Apple products are designed.  Steve Jobs would be an example of a person who would believe in all three principles of good architecture.  How many executives buying DCIM want or believe in the three principles?  Not many.  On the other hand beauty is the experience people get from almost all luxury services - BMW, Porsche, etc.  So there is value in beauty.  

A great DCIM information architecture will be beautiful one of these days.

The peak of dual processor servers is coming, Intel sets new path towards the mainframe

24 years ago in 1989 Compaq released the first dual processor, RAID Intel 486 Server.

At its initial release in November 1989, the SystemPro supported up to two 33 MHz 386 processors, but early in 1990 33 MHz 486 processors became an option (the processors were housed on proprietarydaughterboards).

The SystemPro, along with the simultaneously released Compaq Deskpro 486, was one of the first two commercially available computer systems containing the new EISA bus. The SystemPro was also one of the first PC-style systems specifically designed as a network server, and as such was built from the ground up to take full advantage of the EISA bus. It included such features as multiprocessing (the original systems were asymmetric-only), hardware RAID, and bus-mastering network cards. All models of SystemPro used a full-height tower configuration, with eight internal hard drive bays.

Over the past 24 years the data center has seen a steady growth of dual processor servers.

Yesterday Intel announced a re-architecting of the datacenter.

And the future is not dual processor servers to deliver compute, I/O and memory.  The Pooled compute, Pooled Memory, Pooled I/O  looks like a mainframe.

Most media is focusing on new processors announced.  That is the old world of thinking.

Intel makes the point of going from proprietary to standards with supercomputers.

And a diversity of workloads.  The high cpu, memory, I/O was the realm of supercomputers and mainframes.

Intel is also driving innovation at the low end, but these are not the systems to run the high resource workloads.

Traditional servers are also evolving. To meet the diverse needs of datacenter operators who deploy everything from compute intensive database applications to consumer facing Web services that benefit from smaller, more energy-efficient processing, Intel outlined its plan to optimize workloads, including customized CPU and SoC configurations.

Thinking about how Intel is ready to change the Data Center

It is early morning and I am in Portland for 4 days.  OSCON is going on this week.

On July 22. Intel announced its re-architecting of the datacenter.

Intel Aims to "Re-Architect" Datacenters to Meet Demand for New Services

 

But, what took me to Portland was not OSCON, but catching up with friends and getting a chance to tour Intel's HPC datacenter.

 

If you want to see the data center look at this video.

There are many things that can be discussed with Intel's press announcement and i'll write a bunch of posts.

 

If I was going to give a University lecture on Data Centers I would …

I have a friend who is Dean of Business and Economics school and he asked if I would participate in a graduate class by giving a lecture on data centers.  I said sure I'll do it.  What would I present?  

Here are some ideas I have that are good to write and see how they sit in my mind.

1)  I would explain how data centers align with the business models of companies and go through specifics of how data centers look at Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple.

2)  How many servers people have is the wrong way to look at data centers.  What is more useful is knowing the # of processor cores are in the data center.

3)  Operations of data center is a good topic touch upon that relates to the business models.  Maybe this could be discussing the economics of data centers.

If I stuck to Business Models, Technology, and Operation Economics that would seem like three categories to cover that would be good.

I'll see what the Dean thinks of presenting data centers in this way.