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Tracking and managing data center cabling is one of the most overlooked aspects of data center management. However, when it’s not done properly, it can cause all kinds of problems from costly downtime to inefficient use of capacity.
Don’t settle for cable spaghetti. Keep reading to find out the basics about data center cabling, understand how to track and organize it, and learn how the best data center managers in the industry are dramatically simplifying cable management.
What is Data Center Cabling?
Data center cabling is what connects different pieces of data center infrastructure and equipment to enable network connectivity and power distribution.
Data center cabling can fall into one...
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Sunbird’s Models Library release for May is now available: Version 3.152. Download and update to Version 3.152 to get all the most recent model data!
Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free.
Can’t find a specific make and model? C...
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Many organizations perform periodic data center asset audits to report accurate asset information by cabinet and U position. This information is needed to remotely plan moves, adds, and changes and to facilitate corporate reporting.
Data center asset management is often a struggle due to the complex, distributed, and constantly changing environments of modern data centers. They are manual, time-consuming, and human error can result in inaccurate data. It’s estimated that only 80% of asset information is correct on average.
However, new functionality in Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software dramatically simplifies data center asset audits so they can be performed faster, with...
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Data center automation is expected to rapidly change the data center industry.
Look at any data center industry publication, website, or event and there will be plenty of content predicting what data center automation is going to look like. Data center professionals are curious on how automation is going to change their jobs and data center management.
The truth is that we already know.
Cutting-edge data center managers are already implementing integration and automation in their data centers, and they are getting incredible results.
"What we're trying to do as an organization is to get out of the data world and into the information world," said Raymond Parpart, Director Data Center Strategy...
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Data center energy consumption is on the rise as the demand for computing power and digital services continues to grow.
To reduce data center carbon emissions, many data center managers now have corporate sustainability goals that they must comply with. According to KPMG, 80% of companies now report on their sustainability.
The benefits of increasing data center energy efficiency are vast. A sustainable data center reduces the facility's impact on climate change, reduces operating costs, maximizes the value of existing capacity, complies with regulations and initiatives, and is more attractive to customers.
But many data center managers don't know how to measure their data center energy cons...
-
Sunbird’s Models Library release for April is now available: Version 3.151. Download and update to Version 3.151 to get all the most recent model data!
Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free.
Can’t find a specific make and model?...
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Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio of the total amount of power used by a data center to the power delivered to IT equipment. The PUE metric was developed by The Green Grid to measure the overall energy efficiency of data centers, and it has been one of the most popular data center KPIs since its introduction in 2007.
Expressed as a formula, the PUE ratio is calculated as such:
PUE = Total Facility Energy / IT Equipment Energy
With a renewed focus on increasing data center sustainability, many data center professionals must measure and improve their energy efficiency to meet corporate sustainability initiatives. This often leads to the question, “What is the best PUE ratio?”
The best...
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Data center capacity refers to key data center resources (i.e., power, space, cooling, and power/network port connections) that are available to meet the requirements of current and future IT demand.
Accurately planning and managing data center capacity is essential for maintaining uptime and increasing efficiency. Failure to do so can be very expensive and detrimental to the business.
For example, if there is not enough available capacity, data centers can experience downtime and applications and services can be impacted resulting in unhappy customers and a damaged reputation. Or if there is too much available capacity, then the data center is operating inefficiently and wasting money and r...
-
Sunbird’s Models Library release for March is now available: Version 3.150. Download and update to Version 3.150 to get all the most recent model data!
Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free.
Can’t find a specific make and model?...
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After becoming increasingly popular in the mid-2000s, cloud computing has revolutionized the data center industry. Aside from providing cost-savings, security, mobility, and scalability benefits, cloud computing was also expected to be more environmentally friendly than other data storing and processing methods. By being highly efficient, cloud operators can reduce the use of electricity and other materials that typically increase a data center’s carbon footprint.
The extensive use of cloud services has resulted in an increased demand for larger data centers spread across the world. Combined with the explosive growth of data, the demand for public cloud offerings has caused cloud service pro...
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Cooling systems are one of the most important components of a data center. They often consume about half of all the data center’s total energy and are necessary to maintain a safe operating environment.
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) thermal guidelines recommend that the ideal temperature for server inlets is between 64.4° F and 80.6° F with a relative humidity between 40% and 60%. If the ideal temperature is not achieved, the IT equipment will likely malfunction, leading to expensive damages and an increase in downtime.
While traditional data center cooling systems typically involved CRAC/CRAH units, there have been numerous innovatio...
-
Sunbird’s Models Library release for February is now available: Version 3.149. Download and update to Version 3.149 to get all the most recent model data!
Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free.
Can’t find a specific make and mod...
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Do you know what your power density per rack is? How about what it costs to power each individual rack for a year? Or all your racks combined?
The fact is that most data center managers don’t know this information, which can be incredibly valuable when it comes to power capacity planning, energy management, and maximizing the utilization of existing resources.
That’s why we created a simple and free tool to make it easy for you to understand your power density and data center energy costs.
Try the “What Does It Cost to Power a Rack?” calculator.
What Does It Cost to Power an Average Data Center?
Let’s try an example, imagining you have an average data center. Your data center pays the US a...
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As modern data centers grow increasingly complex and distributed, data center technology and infrastructure can become more difficult to manage, and it becomes harder for IT decision-makers to find qualified candidates.
According to Uptime Institute, 50% of data center owners and operators are struggling to find qualified candidates.
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated industry trends such as remote data center management, deepening the already severe data center skills gap.
Data center operations have been greatly affected by the increased security and performance risks that have arisen from the shift to a virtual presence for most businesses and institutions. As the pand...
-
Sunbird’s Models Library release for January is now available: Version 3.148. Download and update to Version 3.148 to get all the most recent model data!
Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 450 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free.
Can’t find a specific make and model?...
Tracking and managing data center cabling is one of the most overlooked aspects of data center management. However, when it’s not done properly, it can cause all kinds of problems from costly downtime to inefficient use of capacity. Don’t settle for cable spaghetti. Keep reading to find out the basics about data center cabling, understand how to track and organize it, and learn how the best data center managers in the industry are dramatically simplifying cable management. What is Data Center Cabling? Data center cabling is what connects different pieces of data center infrastructure and equipment to enable network connectivity and power distribution. Data center cabling can fall into one...
Sunbird’s Models Library release for May is now available: Version 3.152. Download and update to Version 3.152 to get all the most recent model data! Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free. Can’t find a specific make and model? C...
Many organizations perform periodic data center asset audits to report accurate asset information by cabinet and U position. This information is needed to remotely plan moves, adds, and changes and to facilitate corporate reporting. Data center asset management is often a struggle due to the complex, distributed, and constantly changing environments of modern data centers. They are manual, time-consuming, and human error can result in inaccurate data. It’s estimated that only 80% of asset information is correct on average. However, new functionality in Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software dramatically simplifies data center asset audits so they can be performed faster, with...
Data center automation is expected to rapidly change the data center industry. Look at any data center industry publication, website, or event and there will be plenty of content predicting what data center automation is going to look like. Data center professionals are curious on how automation is going to change their jobs and data center management. The truth is that we already know. Cutting-edge data center managers are already implementing integration and automation in their data centers, and they are getting incredible results. "What we're trying to do as an organization is to get out of the data world and into the information world," said Raymond Parpart, Director Data Center Strategy...
Data center energy consumption is on the rise as the demand for computing power and digital services continues to grow. To reduce data center carbon emissions, many data center managers now have corporate sustainability goals that they must comply with. According to KPMG, 80% of companies now report on their sustainability. The benefits of increasing data center energy efficiency are vast. A sustainable data center reduces the facility's impact on climate change, reduces operating costs, maximizes the value of existing capacity, complies with regulations and initiatives, and is more attractive to customers. But many data center managers don't know how to measure their data center energy cons...
Sunbird’s Models Library release for April is now available: Version 3.151. Download and update to Version 3.151 to get all the most recent model data! Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free. Can’t find a specific make and model?...
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio of the total amount of power used by a data center to the power delivered to IT equipment. The PUE metric was developed by The Green Grid to measure the overall energy efficiency of data centers, and it has been one of the most popular data center KPIs since its introduction in 2007. Expressed as a formula, the PUE ratio is calculated as such: PUE = Total Facility Energy / IT Equipment Energy With a renewed focus on increasing data center sustainability, many data center professionals must measure and improve their energy efficiency to meet corporate sustainability initiatives. This often leads to the question, “What is the best PUE ratio?” The best...
Data center capacity refers to key data center resources (i.e., power, space, cooling, and power/network port connections) that are available to meet the requirements of current and future IT demand. Accurately planning and managing data center capacity is essential for maintaining uptime and increasing efficiency. Failure to do so can be very expensive and detrimental to the business. For example, if there is not enough available capacity, data centers can experience downtime and applications and services can be impacted resulting in unhappy customers and a damaged reputation. Or if there is too much available capacity, then the data center is operating inefficiently and wasting money and r...
Sunbird’s Models Library release for March is now available: Version 3.150. Download and update to Version 3.150 to get all the most recent model data! Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free. Can’t find a specific make and model?...
After becoming increasingly popular in the mid-2000s, cloud computing has revolutionized the data center industry. Aside from providing cost-savings, security, mobility, and scalability benefits, cloud computing was also expected to be more environmentally friendly than other data storing and processing methods. By being highly efficient, cloud operators can reduce the use of electricity and other materials that typically increase a data center’s carbon footprint. The extensive use of cloud services has resulted in an increased demand for larger data centers spread across the world. Combined with the explosive growth of data, the demand for public cloud offerings has caused cloud service pro...
Cooling systems are one of the most important components of a data center. They often consume about half of all the data center’s total energy and are necessary to maintain a safe operating environment. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) thermal guidelines recommend that the ideal temperature for server inlets is between 64.4° F and 80.6° F with a relative humidity between 40% and 60%. If the ideal temperature is not achieved, the IT equipment will likely malfunction, leading to expensive damages and an increase in downtime. While traditional data center cooling systems typically involved CRAC/CRAH units, there have been numerous innovatio...
Sunbird’s Models Library release for February is now available: Version 3.149. Download and update to Version 3.149 to get all the most recent model data! Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 1,280 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free. Can’t find a specific make and mod...
Do you know what your power density per rack is? How about what it costs to power each individual rack for a year? Or all your racks combined? The fact is that most data center managers don’t know this information, which can be incredibly valuable when it comes to power capacity planning, energy management, and maximizing the utilization of existing resources. That’s why we created a simple and free tool to make it easy for you to understand your power density and data center energy costs. Try the “What Does It Cost to Power a Rack?” calculator. What Does It Cost to Power an Average Data Center? Let’s try an example, imagining you have an average data center. Your data center pays the US a...
As modern data centers grow increasingly complex and distributed, data center technology and infrastructure can become more difficult to manage, and it becomes harder for IT decision-makers to find qualified candidates. According to Uptime Institute, 50% of data center owners and operators are struggling to find qualified candidates. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated industry trends such as remote data center management, deepening the already severe data center skills gap. Data center operations have been greatly affected by the increased security and performance risks that have arisen from the shift to a virtual presence for most businesses and institutions. As the pand...
Sunbird’s Models Library release for January is now available: Version 3.148. Download and update to Version 3.148 to get all the most recent model data! Sunbird’s Models Library simplifies your data center asset management. The library includes detailed information—such as U space, dimensions, weight, power ports, and data ports—for over 40,000 models across over 450 manufacturers. Updating the Models Library after you have implemented Sunbird’s DCIM software helps to ensure that you are using the most accurate and up-to-date model information. This information also ensures that your data center change management tickets and reservations are error free. Can’t find a specific make and model?...