ASHRAE Journal - June 2019 - 58

TECHNICAL FEATURE

Data Aggregation
Providing raw data collected from multiple devices
at different levels may be interesting but the goal of
DCIM is to understand the relationships between the
data. Data aggregation is an important aspect of any
DCIM system and is typically done using a centralized device that can normalize data across multiple
environments. These solutions include hardware,
software, or combination of both. Data aggregation
is the process of normalizing data collected from a
variety of sources and protocols and providing a standard summary format that can be consumed by DCIM
applications.

As a starting point, data centers should be made
aware of power and cooling issues before they become
disruptive. This can mean alarming or detecting faults
or undesirable behavior by using the DCIM system for
monitoring and analytics. The use of this historical data
could also be used for predictive purposes within different model-based tools enabling even better decision
making. For example, predicting the engineering consequences of a proposed deployment (of software or hardware) before the change and thus having the advanced
insight to avoid poor configurations within the data
center environment that will reduce efficiency, capacity
or availability.

Using Measured and Model Based Data

Conclusions

With a connective framework in place, data can be
shared, analyzed and used to positively influence data
center operation. Even if only measured data from
telemetry is used, the abundance of data can present
a challenge and it is important to develop a strategy to
manage and make effective use of the data.

The demarcation between facilities and IT usually is
at the IT equipment rack. Over time, DCIM has merged
these roles together for a more cooperative, less rigid
definition of responsibilities. The evolution of data
centers and the need to reduce energy costs has pushed
data center managers to integrate a variety of facility
equipment and devices into DCIM systems with the goal
of having centralized access for monitoring real-time
device information related to power and cooling capacity and asset allocation.
This article serves as a starting point for data center
owners and operators who are thinking about deploying DCIM within their environment. It outlined the key
pieces in the overall DCIM connective framework and
how the industry is moving toward more interoperability of data center assets and DCIM tools to bring down
the cost and effort of deployments.
ASHRAE Datacom Book 14 Advancing DCIM with IT
Equipment Integration provides many more details on
how an organization can leverage DCIM systems to
help normalize and organize the large quantity of
data that can be collected and how this data can be
used to calculate key metrics to improve the data
center's operation. It also highlights key use cases
that are already being practiced in many DCIM
deployments.

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ASHRAE JOURNAL

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References
1. ASHRAE. Forthcoming. Advancing DCIM with IT Equipment
Integration. Atlanta: ASHRAE.
2. DMTF. 2018. "Redfish Resource and Schema Guide."
https://www.dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/
DSP2046_2018.3.pdf.

http://www.rawal.com https://www.dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP2046_2018.3.pdf https://www.dmtf.org/sites/default/files/standards/documents/DSP2046_2018.3.pdf https://www.ashrae.org/

ASHRAE Journal - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - June 2019