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DCIM Software
Manage your data center efficiently.

Data Center Infrastructure Management Software (DCIM)

FNT's Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solution is a central resource management and optimization software for the data center. It covers documentation, planning, and management of all data center resources and facilities throughout their entire lifecycle. Businesses that use our DCIM software are able to streamline processes and optimize utilization of building infrastructure (power, cooling, floorspace), IT infrastructure (networks, servers, storage), connectivity (cables, patches) and services (software, applications). Our DCIM solution provides consistent, up-to-date, and easily accessible data that is vital for informed decisions on deployment of data center infrastructure resources and capacities. It is a field-tested solution based on the powerful FNT Command Platform that delivers a comprehensive and integrated view of all data center resources. From recording and monitoring live power consumption and temperature values to planning the entire data center, our DCIM software will keep your data center operating with maximum efficiency.

Desktop monitor depicting FNT DCIM tool with photo-realistic view of all sides of a rack filled with existing and planned servers.
Desktop monitor depicting FNT DCIM tool with photo-realistic view of all sides of a rack filled with existing and planned servers.

What is DCIM?

DCIM is the abbreviation for ‘Data Center Infrastructure Management’. It refers to a set of tools, processes, and technologies used to monitor, manage, and optimize the physical infrastructure of a data center.

Why should I use DCIM software?

DCIM solutions can help data center operators to manage power and cooling resources, track the location and status of equipment, monitor environmental conditions, and plan for capacity and resource utilization. Some solutions also provide real-time and historical data on energy usage, server performance, and other key metrics, which can be used to identify opportunities for cost saving and efficiency improvements. DCIM software can be used to manage data centers of all sizes, from small server rooms in edge data centers to large enterprise data centers, and ensures that infrastructure is operating efficiently and effectively.

Why not use BMS software or spreadsheets?

Both these potential alternatives lack critical features needed for proper management, team cooperation, and optimization of capacity usage.

Building Management Systems (BMS) manage and control mechanical and electrical systems in the data center, such as cooling, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and power. These solutions are designed to optimize energy usage, improve operational safety, and reduce operating costs, but they are completely unaware of most parts of the data center infrastructure such as racks, servers, switches, cables, or the network. Also, they lack process support needed to optimize white space usage, resilience, and reliability of IT operations. BMS tools complement DCIM solutions but cannot replace them.

Spreadsheets such as Excel are often found as documentation and planning tools in IT and data center management. However, as they lack features to validate data entry and useful method for tracking changes (history, change log), and they do not provide useful support to larger teams or satisfy legal documentation requirements.

What are the main differences between DCIM systems on the market?

Most solutions cover similar aspects of data center management but emphasize different feature sets. The following function domains are typically covered to some degree: Asset management, Power and cooling management & Environmental monitoring, Automation and orchestration, Capacity planning, Analytics and reporting.

To avoid comparing apples and oranges, users looking for a suitable solution should identify their needs and the business value they want to achieve by implementing a DCIM solution before comparing alternative offerings.  

For more details on the different tool types, see our free White Paper "Rethinking DCIM".

What makes a DCIM tool future-proof?

The needs for data center management are evolving constantly and the move to colocation, virtualization, and hybrid infrastructure adds new aspects to management processes. DCIM should therefore be selected not just by looking at todays’ needs, but with the future of data center operations in mind. Features such as planning, including cable management and network aspects, or vendor-agnostic support for all equipment models are critical for the long-term value of a solution.

For more details on next generation tool requirements, see our free White Paper "Rethinking DCIM".

Is it difficult to implement a DCIM solution?

While projects will be delayed or fail on occasion, we can clearly state from our experience with over 2.000 DCIM implementation projects that difficulties can be minimized or outright avoided. Problems implementing enterprise management software most often arise when the implementation method does not match the organizational structure or other project requirements. As a best practice, we suggest making the implementation planning part of the tender phase and vendor selection process rather than delaying planning tasks to the project phase after awarding a contract.

For more details on implementation best practices, see our free White Paper "IT Infrastructure Management Tools".

Does DCIM really pay for itself?

The short answer: Yes, with one caveat: when it is used right.

Much has been written about this topic by analysts, experts, and vendors that clearly demonstrates the value of DCIM. From reducing time and effort for planning, minimizing outage risks, and speeding up root cause analysis, DCIM contributes to reducing OPEX with a wide range of cost reduction aspects that clearly justify the investment.

Modern infrastructures are morphing into a complex mixture of hybrid resources. While new tools are needed to manage these intricate hybrid digital infrastructures, DCIM remains a core capability that will always be required.

Advantages of Our DCIM Solution

A complete overview of the entire system landscape

A single system of record for all data center physical inventory, IT assets, and network resources that delivers full transparency into all system resources. All data is stored in an integrated data model that exposes it to planning processes and makes it available for analysis and reporting. Access to this data enables faster impact analysis, reduced fault repair times and reduces operating costs.

Optimize capacities and resource usage

Enhance space, power, and cooling for on-premise, edge locations, colocation space, and distributed IT/network rooms. Know what is being used and where to reclaim lost capacity and avoid stranded capacities.

Reduce MAC processes and track all changes

Gain access to comprehensive information relating to daily data center processes. Whether managing a live data center, consolidating multiple data centers, or setting up a new one, detailed space and capacity planning must be performed before any changes can be made. FNT supports managing all standard move, add, and changes for IT and facility assets.
Presentation of the FNT DCIM software for the efficient management of data centers on different end devices.
The central control and optimization software for your data center.

Highlights of our DCIM software

Floor Space Management

Footprints, or graphical representations of entire data centers or zones within them, help to better understand the real situation in a data center. Racks, floor tiles, cable trays and climate zones, etc. can be placed and arranged. Use a footprint to store a floor plan of the room as a background image and lay a grid of floor tiles on top of the floor plan. Additional grids can be defined individually for each footprint.

Capacity Management

Utilization diagrams provide information on all available reserves by room or data center. Easily create diagrams showing usage of air conditioning, power, and floor space. In the floor space view, create pie charts displaying the relative percentages for different types of space: occupied with device, unoccupied, maneuvering, traffic, and blocked.

Zone Management

Real estate documentation of a data center is structured hierarchically, starting with the property and getting increasingly granular with the campus, building, floor, and room. The structure and number of zones can be configured as needed, and zones can be linked within or between hierarchical layers.

Cable and Patch Management

Encompasses all cabling, including back bone and patching inside the data center and between sites. Manage all patches (non-fixed cabling) and patch panels for copper and fiber cabling. Various display options show connections, including the graphical view inside cabinets. Signal tracing allows fast analysis and tracing across the entire signal chain from any selected port. All devices and cables on the physical layer – whether in actual or planned state - are displayed schematically in the form of a block diagram.

Lifecycle and Object Management

Record every change in the database throughout the entire lifecycle of an object. A History function documents a range of parameters for every CI, such as location, attributes, links, users, and type of change. This information can be evaluated for one or more CIs using comprehensive reporting functionality.

Power Management

Plan and manage power distributor systems, consisting of power distributors with the associated power buses and rails. Fuses are placed in the outgoing lines on the respective power rails and connected graphically with the corresponding terminal devices.

Rack Elevation Management

Graphic representation of the rack enhanced with a photorealistic imagery, 2 and 3D representations of entire rooms, and a 3D footprint view. These powerful views provide facility managers with a fast and comprehensive overview of current and planned conditions within the data center.

Would you like to see how our DCIM solution works? Request a demo today.

Matthias Gromann
Matthias Gromann
Head of Business Line Asset and Configuration Management
IT-Technologie-Experte und Topic Leader für service-orientierte Automation im IT-Infrastrukturmanagement
Send an email Phone: +49 7961 9039 0
Further Downloads

Would you like to know more about DCIM? Then you might be interested in the following:

Expert Paper
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Future-proof Cable Management with FNT Solutions
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In this third paper, we show how FNT specifically supports management of your data center cabling through a state-of-the-art software solution and decades of experience. After all, cable management is part of our DNA. Almost half of all DAX40 companies and more than 500 other major organizations around the world rely on our solutions to record, document, plan, and operate their critical cable infrastructures. Read on to discover how to future-proof the foundations of your digital transformation.

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Why You Need a Digital Twin of Your Data Centers
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Partner Solution Paper
Augmented Reality Brings your DCIM to the Next Level
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Increase the Efficiency of your Data Center Staff with AR-supported Infrastructure Management and Operations

What started in the 90s and was a vague vision of the future for most people back then, has now become part of our everyday lives. The possibilities that augmented reality (AR) offers us are extensive. Following this trend, the state-of-the-art technology is now also bringing innovations to data centers. Read all about the benefits of AR-driven DCIM in our brand new Partner Solution Paper and learn how the joint solution of FNT and Inceptum takes your DCIM to the next level!

White Paper
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The nerve pathways of digital transformation

Few aspects of digital infrastructure are as undervalued as network cabling – yet few are as critical to the process. Cabling provides the essential foundation for all forms of connectivity, data communication, and digital value creation. At the same time, the cables themselves are largely invisible, with more and more IT services being consumed from the cloud via WLAN. The highly qualified teams that provide and operate the cabling also work behind the scenes. This is especially true of the cabling in data centers, which is often regarded as a black box.

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How a paradigm shift can fix cable chaos

In our white paper titled The Nerve Pathways of Digital Transformation, we highlighted the strategic importance and value of data center cabling. The focus was on the challenges around managing data center cabling, the consequences of inadequate cable management, and the warning signs that urgent action is needed. In this white paper, we examine how to turn data center cable management into a technical and economic success factor. We present the necessary changes to the fundamental approach and the positive effects that result from this paradigm shift. This is accompanied by a look at the increasing importance of professionalization, the use of professional software, and the tangible benefits it delivers for data center managers

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Best Practices for Implementation

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Rethinking DCIM
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Guide to understanding Top-Down DCIM and why it matters

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How to Evaluate and Transition to a New Solution

Whatever the motivating factor, every organization will at some point need to replace their DCIM software. Whether by choice or by force, there is a way to approach the process that will minimize the effort required and maximize the benefit not only to your data center, but to your organization overall.

This guide is full of useful information that can facilitate the process. It details what to look for in a replacement solution and best practices for how to migrate. It also lays out the justifications you’ll need to garner management support for the change initiative.

White Paper
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How to leverage the full potential of management tools and process with smart integration

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A Data Center´s Guide for Managing Hybrid Resources

The pandemic has heightened the need for digital transformation and is accelerating its mainstream adoption to support remote workforces, increased bandwidth, IoT, and virtualization. To ensure success in the aftermath of COVID-19 and remain competitive in a digital world, businesses must also understand how infrastructure management is evolving. In this white paper, we’ll discuss why today’s modern data centers need hybrid digital infrastructure management for greater visibility into digital infrastructure and to support increased mobility.

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How Smart Integrations Enhance Data Center Management
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Taking data center automation to new levels with a combined FNT/ABB solution

Managing data centers is complicated. It involves multiple tools, a combination of manual and automated processes that aren’t always in sync, and data that isn’t always available when needed. A single solution simply cannot handle the complexity of a modern data center. Integrating best-in-class tools is the key to increasing efficiency and productivity across all departments. It makes sure all are working together in an integrated way and not operating in silos. Read our new white paper to learn how FNT together with ABB have made data center management more efficient just by working together.

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A Guide for Operating Remote Sites

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Success Story
Federal Employment Agency
Success Story - The IT system house of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) uses DCIM Software from FNT
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The IT system house of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) is responsible for the operation of fail-safe data centers at the headquarters in Nuremberg as well as for the IT infrastructure in the 1,800 real estates. To increase the efficiency of the own organization for the DC planning and administration tasks, the IT system house migrated to the FNT Command resource management solution.

Webinar

Data Center Management
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In this webinar, ABB and FNT Software show how enterprises and colocation providers are employing integrated tools and processes to achieve high-caliber data center management. The focus will be on how to combine monitoring and control of facilities with IT asset management and capacity planning, and the big benefits that can be  realized as a result.

Move to FNT
Are You Stuck with A Discontinued DCIM Tool?

Is your DCIM application keeping pace with the growing demands of your data center operations? Are you able to proactively manage changes? Do you have visibility of all the components that comprise your data center?

Make the change!


FNT Software Americas
Contact: Justin Menoche

FNT Software APAC
Contact: Prislyn Peck

FNT Software Europe
Contact: Claudio David