Watching a great doubles tennis match recently got me to thinking that it’s always great to see good strategy and skill being played out on the court.

Working in a team isn’t just a prerequisite in sports; it’s also fundamental in today’s data centers. With systems and workloads becoming increasingly interconnected, operational staff needs to be equally integrated to deliver maximum performance.

Yet many organizations struggle to achieve this integration – particularly at a people level. CA DCIM solutions can help bridge this divide, bringing together not only IT teams but also colleagues in facilities and other business units.

For this integration to be a success, however, it needs to be part of the game plan from the moment an organization starts thinking about DCIM.

Thanks to its breadth and depth, DCIM can mean different things to different user groups. For the infrastructure team, it can be a springboard for better capacity management. For the facilities team, it can be a gateway to smarter energy consumption. For data center and business executives, it can give the insight needed to drive greater performance.

The different use cases – and the full potential of DCIM – will only become apparent by bringing together everyone involved in operating the data center at the outset. It’s not easy, but it’s essential to selecting the right supplier and the right solution.

Level the vendor playing field

Even some vendors struggle to take a united approach when it comes to DCIM. I was involved in one customer bid where a vendor brought along three separate teams to showcase its DCIM capabilities.

This lack of unification so early in the process should raise a red flag: if a DCIM vendor can’t integrate their own approach, how can they integrate yours?

There are many other ‘clues’ to look out for during the sales cycle that will help you determine the true pedigree of different DCIM vendors – and their solutions – before they join your team.

Do they have customer credentials?

By talking to other organizations that have already worked with the vendor, you will be able to understand their strengths and weaknesses on the DCIM pitch.

Key things to ascertain include the usability of the solution, the flexibility of the vendor and the accuracy of the implementation timeline. It’s also important to understand how a vendor will continue to support you and your users after the go-live date. Will they sit on the bench or will they act as a coach?

Can they scale?

As DCIM implementations mature, they can encompass not only a wealth of data but also a variety of operational processes. Although your project plan might start with just two or three critical use cases, there will be more waiting in the wings for their turn on the DCIM court.

For example, a recent customer’s project plan consisted of a set of five use cases to be phased in over three data centers. The use cases included power consumption monitoring, thermal environmental monitoring and visualization, as well as impact analysis needed both for planning and placement. With the initial implementations serving to inform the subsequent phases, the customer was able to have a solid understanding of the business value of the project.

A DCIM supplier and solution must be able to grow with your data centers and your business. Visiting other customers’ implementations, conducting product demos and even proof of concepts will help you determine if a vendor can actually deliver on their promises – today and tomorrow.

Can they help you build a DCIM RFP or RFI?

This might seem like a trick question but it’s vitally important. All DCIM vendors will be happy to help build a set of requirements. But can they articulate what this will actually mean both operationally and strategically? How will the solution enable a unified view of power, cooling, space, servers, network, storage, and more? How will the impact on the business be measured?

A customer recently demonstrated how they are using the power data collated by their DCIM solution to normalize their data center energy consumption to the number of products produced. This gives the customer a unique insight into how power consumption impacts the profitability of the business. It was fundamental to the original business case and was only achieved by engaging early with vendors as part of the RFP process.

The bottom line is that it pays to work with DCIM partners that have proven themselves on the court. By systematically putting vendors through their paces, you will be able to establish whether both they and their DCIM solution are team players. The more united the effort, the more beautiful the win.

Image credit: Kate

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