A data center manager is responsible for overseeing the operations, maintenance, and security of a data center. They ensure that the facility runs efficiently, meets organizational needs, and maintains high levels of uptime and security.
Key Responsibilities of a Data Center Manager
A data center manager has crucial responsibilities including:
- Operations Management. Ensuring the smooth functioning of all hardware, software, and networking components.
- Infrastructure Maintenance. Monitoring and maintaining servers, cooling systems, power supplies, and other critical infrastructure.
- Security & Compliance. Implementing cybersecurity measures, physical security, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations (e.g., ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR).
- Team Leadership. Managing IT personnel, technicians, and engineers responsible for data center operations.
- Disaster Recovery & Backup. Developing and maintaining contingency plans to ensure data integrity and availability in case of failures.
- Capacity Planning. Scaling infrastructure based on business growth and demand.
- Vendor & Budget Management. Overseeing contracts with hardware and software vendors and managing operational budgets.
- Performance Monitoring. Using tools to track system performance, identify inefficiencies, and implement optimizations.
Skills Required to Be a Data Center Manager
To be a successful data center manager, the necessary skills that one must possess are:
- Strong knowledge of IT infrastructure, networking, and security.
- Experience with server management, virtualization, and cloud technologies.
- Problem-solving and leadership abilities.
- Understanding of energy efficiency and cooling systems in data centers.
- Familiarity with disaster recovery planning and risk management.
Popular Certifications for Data Center Managers
Data center management certifications are often acquired by data center professionals who want to demonstrate their proficiency in managing data centers. Certifications can enhance career opportunities, increase earning potential, expand knowledge of best practices, and provide professional recognition.
Some of the common data center management certifications include:
- Accredited Operations Specialist (AOS) – Uptime Institute
- Certified Data Center Facilities Operations Manager (CDFOM®) – EPI
- Certified Data Center Management Professional (CDCMP®) – CNet Training
- Certified Data Center Professional (CDCP®) – EPI
- Critical Operations (DCS®) – DCPRO
- Data Center Manager (DCM®) – IDCA
- Data Center Operations Manager (DCM®) – IDCA
Common Challenges for Data Center Managers
According to Uptime Institute, the top six concerns for data center managers are:
- Cost. Managing rising operational and capital expenses is a constant challenge while ensuring optimal resource utilization.
- Forecasting future data center capacity requirements. Accurately predicting IT resource demands is essential to prevent over-provisioning, which leads to wasted resources, or under-provisioning, which can cause performance issues.
- Improving energy performance for facilities equipment. Enhancing the efficiency of cooling, power distribution, and other facility infrastructure helps reduce costs and minimize environmental impact.
- Lack of qualified staff. Finding and retaining skilled professionals to operate, maintain, and optimize data center infrastructure is becoming increasingly difficult.
- Accommodating significantly denser IT. As computing densities increase, data centers must effectively manage power, cooling, and space constraints to support higher workloads.
- Improving energy performance for IT. Optimizing energy efficiency, virtualization strategies, and workload distribution is critical for reducing energy consumption and operational expenses.
How DCIM Software Helps Data Center Managers
It is surprising that to this day, many data center managers—even those who are responsible for hundreds and thousands of cabinets of equipment—still use Excel, Visio, and homegrown databases to track and manage their data center assets.
These legacy management tools are time-consuming, inaccurate, difficult to maintain, and not designed to address the specific pain points of data center managers.
That is why the best data center managements in the world use Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software.
DCIM software provides a holistic view of all data center resources to enable the management of all your physical infrastructure in a single pane of glass. It gives you the ability to identify, locate, visualize, and manage all your assets, quickly provision new equipment, intelligently plan capacity for future growth, control energy costs, maintain uptime, and increase operational efficiency.
Want to see how Sunbird’s world-leading DCIM software can help you be the best data center manager? Get your free test drive now!