Fusion-io selected by inFrame Designs. Fusion-io (FIO) announced that InFrame Designs, provider of custom-built media servers to accelerate playback of video at live media events, has deployed Fusion’s ioMemory technology in its appliances to reduce latency by up to 100 times when compared to InFrame’s previous architecture. The InFrame Vixen media servers are designed for real-time, on-demand compositing of multiple raw video input sources. With rendering of live video at events surpassing 80GB the Fusion-io microsecond latency was key to improving inFrames’ creative capabilities. “The extremely low latency of the Fusion-io technology has allowed us to access the essential early frames of video that were previously lost in the compositing process because of the lag-time associated with shared storage technology,” said Alex Nadon, President and Founder of InFrame Designs. “By deploying Fusion-io, we were able to improve our production values and deliver better content to our media partners at a much lower cost, while also using less physical space on site. With Fusion-io, we can deliver incredible content to our broadcast customers in near real time to enrich the entertainment experiences of national audiences.”

Raritan launches dcTrack 2.6 DCIM.  Raritan introduced dcTrack 2.6 DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management) software with new intelligent connectivity management capabilities to help data center professionals manage both network and power connections more efficiently. To help dcTrack calculate and track power utilization and capacity anywhere along the power path, dcTrack 2.6 and Raritan’s Power IQ energy management software are now available as an integrated solution for customers who want to deploy both software products together. Asset management capabilities are a part of version 2.6 which, with smart asset tracking sensors and tags give real-time tracking of assets with the information and shares it with dcTrack. ”dcTrack helps data center professionals build and manage network and power connections quickly and efficiently, instead of having to rely on tools, such as Excel and Visio, that are not designed to be used as DCIM tools,” said James Cerwinski, Software Manager at Raritan. “It eliminates wasting time physically tracing among the racks how things are connected, each time you want to make a change. dcTrack inspires more intelligent use of resources in a data center.  The intelligent management capabilities in dcTrack provide the tools and information to make data centers more efficient with power, cooling, space and connection resources.  This saves our customers considerable amounts of time and money.”

CommVault unveils new Simpana software innovations.  CommVault announced new, next-generation Singular Information Management innovations that further empower Simpana software customers to lower data management costs, reduce business and compliance risks and easily extract data for better decision making with anywhere, anytime information access. Simpana OnePass is a new capability that reduces the time typically required to backup, archive and report. Snapshot integration is provided by Simpana SnapProtect technology.  New Simpana Edge protection protects data on laptops and desktops with embedded source deduplication for optimized efficiency. “Traditional data backup methods are being replaced as customers demand better ways to protect, manage and access data in order to derive greater value from this information,” said CommVault CEO Robert Hammer.  ”With our latest Simpana software innovations, CommVault continues to lead the industry in helping businesses move rapidly toward more efficient, self-service infrastructures, while redefining how data is managed to increase its ultimate business value. Today’s announcement reinforces our innovation lead, further setting us apart as the standard in modern data and information management.”

A diagram illustrating an implementation of Intel Power Manager.

As data center infrastructure management (DCIM) continues to gain traction and funding, an unexpected name is building a key role in this emerging business: Intel Corp. While known primarily for processors, Intel’s innovation extends to middleware like Data Center Manager, which captures real-time information on servers’ energy use and temperature and packages it in a data feed.

With Data Center Manager (DCM), Intel is leveraging is relationships with server OEMS and independent software vendors (ISVs). The Intel technology can collect power and temperature data from servers using Intel Xeon chips, but also technology from AMD, IBM and HP, among others. It then packages the data and serves it up as a feed that can be incorporated into DCIM software – in some cases eliminating the need for independent networks of sensors throughout a customer data center.

Working With Many DCIM Providers

Intel has licensed its DCM technology to an impressive roster of players in the DCIM sector, including Rackwise, Fieldview Solutions, iTRACS, JouleX, PowerAssure, Modius, CiRBA and Viridity.

“We want to be the standard for the data feed,” said Jeff Klaus, Director of Data Center Solutions at Intel. “We’re kind of a translation service. We take information from the various OEMs’ proprietary software and translate it into a data feed that we can send to an ISV.”

Intel says it has put a lot of “engineering muscle” into developing DCM software that is powerful and vendor-neutral. DCM can integrate data from uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, power distribution units (PDUs) and smart power strips, as well as power and temperature data that is modeled or based on periodic readings rather than real-time.

“The fact that it’s real-time is the big differentiator,” said Klaus. “This is a useful tool for companies doing monitoring that goes beyond the top and bottom of the rack. We’ve run across scenarios where the temperature difference could be significant.”

The Advantages of Real-Time data

Intel says the data from Data Center Manager can help companies manage their facilities with greater precision, as granular information about power and cooling usage can help identify underutilized racks and potential “hot spots.” The real-time nature of the data provides more detailed trending data that can provide insight into how the data center operates in different conditions. DCM can also support power capping strategies that limit server power draws based on policies.

Klaus says Intel’s approach is designed to let software developers focus on their core competencies. He also noted that Intel’s partners can benefit from its relationships in the industry.

“We’re in this business to help our DCM players to focus on what they do best,” said Klaus. “How Intel can help is that a lot of these companies are young. The opportunity is that our Intel field people have been working with folks like NASDAQ for 20 years. We can bring credibility to a DCIM provider who is DCM capable. I think Intel can play a key trusted advisor role. We’re not going to develop our own solution. That’s not how we go to market.”

Intel’s DCM strategy focuses on three groups::

• ISVs who license Intel DCM technology for use in DCIM software
• Providing DCM as a tool in power management systems for hardware OEMs like Dell and SGI
• Direct sales to data centers that use open source tools or have in-house software development.This customer group includes telcos, and large Internet companies like Baidu and Tencent

Intel is developing additional capabilities for future releases of Data Center Manager, Klaus said, which will liekly include additional temperature readings (such as the exit of the rear of the server) and integration with third-party asset management tools.

Klaus says the DCIM market is developing quickly, with a lot of players, which can be a challenge for customers. “When you dig into the various flavors of products you can buy, it’s confusing,” he said. “We really haven’t seen consolidation in the DCIM space yet, and I don’t know who the major players are going to be.”

But he said Intel has certainly noted the analyst predictions that forecast growth of 25 to 40 percent for the DCIM sector.

Here’s a video overview of Data Center Manager and some of its capabilities.

Schneider’s announcement says that it will acquire the intellectual property and software behind the Viridity EnergyCenter 2.0 platform, which will enhance Schneider’s StruxureWare for Data Center Operations DCIM suite. Schneider is just acquiring the DCIM software and not the company.

Schneider said Viridity’s platform will help customers measure energy consumption accurately and by device, and help customers make the most of their energy. Viridity’s software tracks server utilization and matches it with energy usage and cost. Among other things, the software simplifies the process of identifying “zombie” servers that are using energy but not being used.

“We are very pleased to welcome the Viridity team and their award-winning Energy Center 2.0 platform and look forward to incorporating this solution into Schneider Electric’s line of software solutions,” said Jim Simonelli, CTO of IT Business, Schneider Electric. “Our entrepreneurial cultures are extremely complementary and we expect immediate synergies in the development of Schneider Electric’s next generation DCIM software.”

StruxureWare for Data Centers is a combination of Schneider Electric’s market leading Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Data Center Facility Management (DCFM) software tools. StruxureWare integrates Schneider’s power monitoring (ION Enterprise) and cooling automation (Andover Continuum / TAC Vista). The complete suite is able to provide data gathering, monitoring, automation, and planning and implementation functionalities to enable an integrated and multifaceted view of all the mission critical physical systems of the data center.

Viridity’s EnergyCenter 2.0 software will continue to be supported by Schneider Electric’s world-class global service and support organization.

Earlier this year, Viridity co-founder and CTO Mike Rowan demonstrated the software for us. Here’s a look at the video:

iTRACS Enhances DCIM Software –  iTRACS Corporation today announced the release of its CPIM iCDC v2.4.1 software, which offers iTRACS customers a range of enhanced DCIM capabilities, including more robust intelligent capacity planning, space management, and dynamic modeling features to help accelerate knowledge-based decision-making and change management in today’s most complex infrastructure environments. This latest release helps users simplify the adoption and ongoing maintenance of their DCIM solution, optimize the accuracy of their data center models without any manual intervention, and generate a higher continuous return on their DCIM investment.”This release extends the capabilities of the CPIM™ portfolio as it creates proven, continuous business value for our customers,” said Elizabeth Given, President and CEO of iTRACS. “Customers will see quantifiable improvements in how efficiently they can manage the complex interrelationships between assets, conduct moves, adds, and changes, and commission assets.

IO Modules Selected by Avnet Technology Solutions – Modular data center service provider IO been awarded a contract from Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader, the company said today. As part of this new agreement, IO will provide Avnet Technology Solutions with Data Center as a Service (DCaaS) at IO Phoenix, delivered through its modular technology platform IO Anywhere. “IO is fundamentally changing the way customers purchase and scale their data center infrastructures,” said Tim FitzGerald, vice president, Data Center Technology Solutions Practices, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. “IO’s capabilities will enable us to expand our managed and cloud services within the Avnet Data Center Lifecycle Services portfolio to support the future data center needs of our partners and their customers.”

CoreLink Data Centers to Support Seattle Computing - CoreLink Data Centers has added Seattle Computing to its client roster. CoreLink will provide network infrastructure support to the IT service provider from its Seattle data center facilities, further strengthening the existing enterprise services Seattle Computing provides to its small-to-medium sized customers. “CoreLink and Seattle Computing are both dedicated to delivering unmatched service levels that our respective companies perform in support of our own businesses,” said Chris Nordstrom, Seattle Computing’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We are confident that by entrusting CoreLink to meet our customers’ IT infrastructure support requirements, they will receive the same quality services they’ve grown accustomed to.”

Zayo Connects to Green House Data in Cheyenne – Zayo Group announces the completion of a fiber build into the Green House Data facility, Wyoming’s first multi-tenant data center, offering cloud hosting and colocation services. In addition to the build, Zayo will provide IP Transit service to Green House Data while enabling on-net connectivity to its 70 tenants from 24 states and 3 countries. “We’re excited to add Zayo to our data “enter in Cheyenne, a growing hub of data center activity,” said Shawn Mills, President of Green House Data. “Leveraging Zayo’s nationwide metro and long haul fiber network supports our customers’ growing bandwidth needs.”

Managing your data center infrastructure is probably a job unto itself and once you move beyond 25 racks the need for automation of this management is necessary. DCIM provides a central repository database with a comprehensive set of tools and processes.

The author uses research to illustrate how 25% of the IT budget is consumed by the data center. Such a large investment merits the best optimization available which is provided by a DCIM solution. Details follow on key target areas and how ROI can be detailed which include the management of assets, change, capacity and energy.

According to the research outlined in this whitepaper the DCIM market is worth roughly $240m in 2011, and will grow to $1.2b in 2016. It is time to seriously consider DCIM as a way to solidify IT with the business mission.

Emerson Network Power has introduced the Avocent Universal Management Gateway, a hardware appliance that marks a key step forward in the company’s roll-out of its Trellis platform for data center infrastructure management (DCIM).

The Avocent Universal Management Gateway (UMG) is a 1U rackmount device will serve as a data processing link between IT and facilities systems and management software.

“You’ve got an enormous amount of data from all these devices (throughout the data center),” said Steve Hassell, the President of Avocent. “The UMG is the hardware component of the Trellis solution. It’s a translator that takes all the data from devices and converts it from its native format to a form the Trellis software can use. It can apply rules to those streams of data in real-time.”

On Display in Demos at Gartner

Emerson is demonstrating the Avocent UMG this week at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas. The hardware will be available in February, according to Hassell. “We’ve got a series of early adopters that have the UMG right now,” he said.

Trellis combines Emerson’s existing Aperture, Avocent and Liebert DCIM solutions into a data center infrastructure platform that combines hardware, software and services to provide data center managers detailed information on their infrastructure capacity. Emerson announced its Trellis strategy in Oct. 2010, but the product will not be available until late March of 2012.

The market for DCIM software has become more competitive while Trellis has been in development. But Hassell says Emerson’s decision to take a holistic approach to data center management has paid off.

“When we started Trellis, the phrase DCIM hadn’t been invented yet,” he said. “The market dynamics have changed, but the market has moved towards many of the ideas we built Trellis around, including the need for a more expansive platform rather than series of point solutions. Next year we’ll be the only product that was purpose-built from the ground up.”

Spanning IT and Facilities

Trellis is designed to provide a solution that can span IT and facilities, bringing together data from servers on the raised-floor as well as cooling and power equipment. While optimized for an organization in which IT and facilities cooperate closely, the platform is comprised of multiple modules that allow customers to adopt one component at a time, and add capabilities as needed.

“Trellis is designed so you can start with either IT or facilities models and grow,” said Hassell. “You’re going to start the journey from whatever pain point you have, and then expand outward.”

In emphasizing the importance of DCIM tools in its plans, Emerson has noted that its acquisitions of Aperture and Avocent represent a more than $1.25 billion investment. The Gartner event has featured updates of DCIM tools from several vendors, reflecting the prominence of data center management for the enterprise users that dominate the Gartner attendeer base.

Growing Interest in DCIM

“More and more organizations are seeking to eliminate the inefficiencies created when IT and facilities systems are managed separately,” explained David Cappuccio, Vice President and Chief of Research – Infrastructures, Gartner. “DCIM solutions that integrate IT and facilities systems into a single management platform will be essential to optimizing the performance of the data center in the future.”

Emerson also introduced Avocent DSView 4, an updated version of Avocent software that can use the Avocent Universal Management Gateway appliance to deliver 24/7 centralized data center management. Avocent DSView 4 also offers new features including HyperV support, FIPS 140-2 support, and the addition of an open architecture database to allow administrators to design custom reports, and utilize third-party reporting systems.

“The UMG is being released as an Avocent device,” said Hassell. “You can use the UMG with the software you have today, in place of our previous service processor product, and then be ready for Trellis.”

A screen shot from Sentilla 4.0, showing a view which allows data center operators to compare the cost trends in in-house data centers and cloud computing environments. Click the image for a larger version.

Data center analytics specialist Sentilla Corporation announced the release of Sentilla 4.0 software for data center infrastructure management (DCIM), adding new features to help companies use real data to evaluate the impact of projects before they’re implemented.

“A top priority at Sentilla is to empower IT to run like a business,” said Joe Polastre, Ph.D., chief technology officer at Sentilla. ”Sentilla 4.0 delivers with needed analytics to ease the transition to IT as a service. We’ve packed Sentilla 4.0 with the most advanced data center infrastructure management (DCIM), planning and predictive analytics software possible so IT executives gain in-depth insight into every conceivable infrastructure angle to create a smart, impactful data center strategy.”

To meet the growing demand for IT to run as a service, Sentilla software is delivered in three flexible configurations to match enterprise needs: Software as a Service, a VMware Ready virtual appliance and physical appliance.

Organizations use Sentilla software to model different approaches to data center infrastructure, providing projections of costs and capacity impacts. The company says the capacity planning and predictive analytics in Sentilla 4.0 allow IT executives to evaluate the impact of a project prior to implementation – from a financial, performance, efficiency or capacity perspective.

New enhancements in Sentilla 4.0 include:

• A financial planning module to benchmark the cost of running their IT infrastructure and evaluate the financial impacts of moving IT infrastructure to virtualization, private cloud or public cloud.
• An infrastructure planning module allowing users to evaluate the impact of infrastructure projects, such as hardware refresh, before implementation. It also forecasts when the data center will run out of capacity.
• An asset analysis tool that can quickly identify opportunities for efficiency exist within an environment.
• Support for multiple data centers to manage multiple IT environments in diverse geographic locations.
• Extensive integration to existing enterprise management systems from IBM, HP, BMC, VMware, and others to manage new assets and update changed assets quickly and seamlessly.
• Increased support for facility infrastructure from Eaton, Emerson, APC, and Schneider Electric and additional integration with BMC and HP software.

A screen capture of the i/o OS software for managing data center infrastructure.

IO is getting into the software business. Today the Phoenix-based colocation provider said that it is offering IO OS, its “data center operating system,” as a stand-alone software product. IO OS was initially developed to manage the IO Anywhere modular data center technology platform, and has since been adapted to manage raised-floor environments as well.

“By extending IO OS to traditional data centers, IO empowers our customers to understand and optimize their legacy data centers and enables their enterprises to seamlessly transition to Data Center 2.0 technology and cloud computing,” said George Slessman, CEO of IO.

Focus on DCIM Category

The release of IO OS as a stand-alone product comes as companies are actively seeking tools to help them manage increasingly complex data center environments. This software category – known broadly as data center infrastructure management or DCIM – has become more crowded in recent years, as a flurry of new companies have introduced software to manage and automate elements of the data center. IO sees its software development efforts as a way to leverage its in-house research-and-development operation and distinguish its offerings in a changing market for IT infrastructure.

IO OS is written in the C#, and provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow customers to tie into its capabilities. IO is developing an extensibility roadmap, including a software development kit (SDK) to allow clients and developers to build their own apps to plug into the system. IO says its OS supports most apps and equipment, but the company is also offering an integration service for customers.

In addition to tracking and management capabilities, IO is emphasizing its software’s ability to provide continuous feedback to help identify potential problems and take preventative action.

Features of IO OS software include:

• Real-time data to accurately reflect the current mechanical, power, cooling and electrical usage.
• Centralized monitoring that tracks and maintains a record of all critical systems and provides a continuous feedback mechanism to staff when pre-defined thresholds have been met. IO OS is compliant with ITIL and provides real-time incident recording and analysis with the ability to integrate current ticketing systems and audit trail processes.
• Physical, Logical and Infrastructure views that organize critical infrastructure by its location and access hundreds of devices from one view. In addition to seeing what is in the data center, IO OS provides views into generators, switchgear, paralleling systems, chillers and any other supporting systems.
• Service Level Management: IO OS enables continuous monitoring, control and ITIL-based managed services integration for the data center providing complete management of the data center from a “single pane of glass.”

Suntron Adopts IO Anywhere

IO also said Monday that it has been awarded a contract with Suntron Corporation, a leading provider of electronics manufacturing services and embedded computing solutions. IO will provide Suntron with Data Center as a Service (DCaaS) at its IO Phoenix location, delivered through its IO Anywhere modular data center technology platform.

Suntron operates prototyping facilities in the United States and Mexico. Their Phoenix facility serves as the corporate headquarters and southwest manufacturing facility, producing high reliability products for aerospace, defense, medical and industrial markets. IO’s compartmentalized architecture provides Suntron and its customers with an added level of security and flexibility to ensure information assets are always protected.

“In dealing with the defense customers that require our NADCAP, AS9100 and ITAR certifications, security and availability of our data are our number one priorities,” said Tony Portela, Director of IT at Suntron. “We selected IO because, like us, they deliver innovative solutions tailored to match specific customer requirements, while meeting the highest quality standards.”

Advantages of the collaboration include expanded real-time power and thermal monitoring, enhanced failure analysis and extended visibility and analytics at the device, rack, floor and all other levels of infrastructure.

“The Intel Data Center Manager combined with RACKWISE DCM helps provide data center managers and executives extensive visibility into device level energy usage and thermal data which will enhance capacity planning, forecasting, performance monitoring and energy management for significant operational savings,” said Jeff Klaus, Director of Data Center Solutions at Intel.  “RACKWISE DCM ’s extensive visualization, reporting and analytics platform combined with information from Intel DCM will give data center personnel an unprecedented level of intelligent access and control over the physical and virtual assets within the data center.”

Romonet announces version 2 of Prognose suite.  Predictive modeling software company Romonet announced version 2.0 of its  Prognose software suite.  The company is also announcing three additional components to the suite with Prognose energy, Prognose economics and Prognose enterprise. Prognose 2.0 brings advanced features including the ability to simulate over a full Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) delivering even greater accuracy and climate sensitive analysis of data centers based on their actual or intended geographical location. The new Node Level Resilience (NLR) feature allows users to rapidly model the impact of control system changes reducing the risk of an unexpected behavior impacting data center availability and uptime. “Our clients want to operate data centers that are cost and energy optimized throughout their life cycle,” said Zahl Limbuwala, co-founder and CEO of Romonet. “For us, that means delivering world leading predictive modeling software tools that provide a clear and accurate forecasting of hour-to-hour operational performance, energy usage and total cost of operations for the entire the data center facility.”

Platform Computing drives scientific breakthroughs. Platform Computing, which was acquired by IBM, announced that Cancer Research UK, a world leader in the study of cancer, has turned to Platform LSF to help drive forward its human genome research project at the Cambridge Research Institute (CRI). The institute has gained greater insight into genetic cancer mutations through an advanced genetic sequencing platform that was paired with Platform LSF. CRI has already saved the equivalent in man hours of one full-time employee by integrating Platform LSF.  ”Platform LSF gives us the means to produce and manage a wealth of gene sequencing data that we could only have dreamed about previously,” said Peter Maccallum, head of IT and scientific computing at Cancer Research UK in Cambridge. “This has already lead to tangible published work looking into breast cancer, and is proving its worth in helping our researchers further the understanding of how cancers progress.”

Salesforce.com unveils social marketing cloud.  Salesforce.com (CRM) unveiled the Radian6 Social Marketing Cloud. The Radian6 Social Marketing Cloud extends the social enterprise to marketing with new features in social monitoring, insights, engagement, workflow and websites. The goal of the new cloud is to help social enterprises transform the massive volume of social media conversations into meaningful engagements. Radian6 is based on five key pillars: social monitoring – managing millions of conversations, social insights – leveraging social media intelligence, social engagement – connecting with customers and prospects, social workflow – delivering millions of social conversations across the enterprise, and social websites – empowering marketers to move at the speed of social. Radian6 is available immediately and will start at $600 per deployment, per month.