As someone famously observed, "the devil is in the details." More and more of my time is spent gathering various bits of facility information about the data center. Here are the types of reports I've had to generate in the past month: pending work orders, power/cooling consumption trend, financial activity, capital refresh plan, staff effort distribution, equipment reliability, space utilization, network wiring map... sheesh! I'm searching for ways to keep better track of all these details.
I've done a moderate survey of software designed to help manage this information. Some of these packages are meant for traditional facilities management (plant maintenance) operations, which could probably be used for maintenance-related data center events. Other packages seem designed for huge and very wealthy corporate environments -- the word "enterprise" gives these away . Some seem to be call center utilities.
Here is my list of data center management software, which I hope some of you find useful. So far, Obtain 24/7 seems like it will meet my requirements and budget. I'd appreciate comments and feedback from anyone who has experiece, good or bad, with Obtain or any other of these packages. Also, if you know of other software out there which is usable for this purpose, please let me know.
Ken, Thanks for the list! I watched a webinar today on Rackwise and I must say I am very excited about the potentials that software has to help manage one of my clients!
Another application I have used in the past is from Automated Logic Corp. They have a great application that can be integrated in to datacenter and modeled with modules to maintain everything. We used to monitor airflow, temperature, humidity, generator speeds and outputs, fuel tank temperatures and fill levels. It even had a spiffy interface where you could pull up you liebert crac units and see a graphical display of the control panel. I believe we also had it setup to monitor the chiller plant as well. It had a nice reporting and alarming feature... I am not sure of the cost but im sure it is waaaaay up there!
Managing Data Center Details
. Some seem to be call center utilities.
