Software to manage the hybrid IT storm

More than 10 years ago, the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said software is eating the world.

Andreessen argued that lines of code had begun to, and still are, changing industry dynamics, driving innovation, and generating new business models and fresh revenue streams. Since then, that disruption has accelerated, according to many observers, under the wider influence of cloud adoption and artificial intelligence (AI).

Amid this shift to software has come other accelerating megatrends.

According to research from Dell, these are AI and machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), robotics, specialized processors, the move from data centers (DC) to centers of data, blockchain, 5G, and quantum computing. Patricia Florissi, vice-president and global CTO for sales, Dell Technologies, said the current range of technological forces at play represent an unprecedented situation globally.

“I believe that the disruption is coming from the fact that those nine are happening all at once,” said Florissi. “If I look back in computer science, I have never seen in my lifetime nine things that could be as disruptive happening at the same time, and think that defines this special moment that we are in.”

That was in 2019. Things have moved on since then.

New challenges

Now, we have the post-pandemic world of hybrid working, more call for online services than ever before, from consumer demand to enterprise communication, as well as the foundation for sustainability adoption and reporting. We also have disrupted supply lines and geopolitical uncertainty that may lead to a new type of globalization.

Amidst all of this, the chief information officer (CIO) is now also tasked with innovation, automation, digital strategy, and all while ensuring security, availability and resilience of enterprise data infrastructure. And that’s complicated.

According to an estimate from HPE, by 2025, the distributed enterprise will comprise data infrastructure of 20% core data centers, 30% public cloud and 50% edge deployments.

The future enterprise will be a complex interplay of hybrid solutions, layered, interwoven, and constantly evolving. A major challenge of hybrid infrastructure is that it covers so many bases:

• IoT/Operational Technology edge
• 5G edge
• Enterprise edge
• Colocation
• Enterprise Data Centers
• Private Cloud
• Public cloud/IaaS

Going back to Florrisi “One [technology] enables the other too. One cannot have AI without IoT, one cannot have IoT without 5G. You cannot have 5G, and all the applications, and the continuum of the cloud, without blockchain.”?

Evolving data centers

The data center, at the heart of this hybrid future, is also changing rapidly.

“The traditional four walls and a ceiling no longer contain the data center,” wrote Erik Vogel of HPE. “The logical data center construct now extends to cloud providers, colocation facilities, edge devices, and edge computing. Today’s data center exists without clear boundaries, creating growing complexity. The new hybrid computing environment is now much harder to operate as performance, reliability, compliance, and security are all more difficult to manage.”

A key evolution in dealing with this software-driven maelstrom is more software.

In the past, managing data centers was seen as a collection of disciplines from power and space management to cooling and performance control. Then came Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) as a unifying means to control the data center as a single entity. As Kevin Brown SVP of EcoStruxure Solutions outlines in this recent video DCIM 1.0 was a simple early effort based around the likes of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) event aggregation. DCIM 2.0 began to define the software and services to manage power, cooling, space with planning, modelling. New software was developed to address challenges with planning and modelling, while also managing vulnerabilities to ensure resiliency. DCIM developed to redefine how to build the data center white space.

Now, we are in the era of DCIM 3.0, with the unique challenge to make the hybrid IT environment resilient, secure, and sustainable.

Addressing the new challenges of DCIM 3.0

Building on the foundation of cloud-based DCIM, DCIM 3.0 will build on key pillars. It is AI and ML driven, through integrated analytics for improved control and automation of hybrid IT physical infrastructure management. It provides a unified experience, where a single DCIM platform provides ease of use across monitoring, management, planning and modelling. It features modular implementation as its capabilities are delivered via flexible modules to provide the right level of infrastructure management for distributed data centers.

Rather than increasing the complexity of hybrid IT, DCIM 3.0 delivers hybrid IT innovation through adaptable software for distributed data centers, deployed in on-premises, private cloud or public cloud environments. It delivers sustainability through a consolidated dashboard that provides recommendations and controls to improve energy efficiency and decarbonization efforts.

Real solutions

To deliver on the promise of DCIM 3.0, Schneider Electric has further developed its EcoStruxure IT line, to enable resilient, secure, and sustainable data center development and operation. The comprehensive DCIM solution ensures business continuity by enabling secure monitoring, management, insights, planning, and modelling, whether from a single IT rack to hyper-scale IT — on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge.

Our approach to DCIM 3.0 provides monitoring and dispatch services as proactive solution management for distributed IT needs. The EcoStruxure IT Expert increases resiliency and visibility through live sensor data, predictive analytics, and smart alarming. The EcoStruxure IT Advisor reduces OpEx and planning for uptime through asset, capacity and change management. Where even more specific implementations are required, the EcoStruxure IT portfolio also offers a Custom Solutions service, where a team of skilled engineers design solutions to exact needs, maximizing investments.

These services are supplemented by Data Center Expert, a scalable monitoring software that collects, organizes, and distributes critical device information providing a comprehensive view of equipment; PowerChute Network Shutdown for virtual machine (VM) protection of hyperconverged server infrastructure, providing graceful shutdown of resources; and the NetBotz Security and Environmental appliance and sensor ranges to for monitoring and management.

Leveraging all previous experience, across the entire breadth of enterprise infrastructure, EcoStruxure IT can deliver the DCIM 3.0 promise to make the hybrid IT world manageable, as well as resilient and secure. CIOs are predicted to be responsible for more than half of energy consumption of IT. As such, sustainability is emerging, in addition to resiliency and security, as a top priority.?We can be the trusted partner for the CIO on this journey.

Enabling bridge

Even as software began to eat the world, accelerated by disruptive megatrends, those same developments have allowed new levels of visibility, control and orchestration that can bring benefits across the board. The hybrid world of enterprise IT is complex, multi-faceted and evolving at a pace that is seeing the influence of world events and geopolitical uncertainty.

The CIO is increasingly tasked with bringing not just technological solutions to the business, but also partnering in innovation and transformation, informing strategy and defining the possible, all while making sustainability ambitions and commitments actionable and achievable.

DCIM 3.0, as delivered through the EcoStruxure IT comprehensive DCIM portfolio, is the enabling bridge towards the secure, resilient, sustainable hybrid enterprise.

Learn more and start a free trial by visiting EcoStruxureIT.com.