Minicom's KVM IP Solutions Showcased by Rackwise at Datacenter Dynamics Sydney, Australia

Rackwise, the internationally recognized leader in Data Center Management and Intelligence solutions, featured Minicom's KVM solutions at Datacenter Dynamics Sydney, Australia, on June 16th.

Rackwise demonstrated RACKWISE DCM's ability to seamlessly point, click, and remotely connect to servers and other device management consoles. As part of their demonstration, Rackwise used one of Minicom's multi-user IP KVM switches, which gives IT managers remote, out-of-band access to their servers from anywhere in the world using a web interface. All equipment used for the demonstrations was located in Rackwise's Product Demonstration Center, located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Try Minicom’s KVM IP solution

IT Giants Extending the Life of Data Center Legacy Equipment

Even data center giants such as Dell are holding back on purchasing new IT equipment and trying to make the most of what they have already bought.

According to an article on Triple Pundit:

“Last month, Dell made the somewhat shocking announcement that it may never build another data center. The company was referring to the fact that it’s doubled its workload using no extra power and building no new data centers, simply by squeezing more capacity out of its existing servers.”

Companies such as HP and Wells Fargo are adopting similar strategies in the hopes of saving energy and money.

Minicom embraced this philosophy years ago with the Real Needs™ approach. The basic philosophy of our Real Needs™ approach is to make sure that you have the most efficient hardware for your data center requirements without spending IT dollars for equipment that you don't need. Rather than advocate a "rip and replace" approach, the Real Needs™ approach preserves past investments by repurposing and updating existing equipment. We utilize the infrastructure, installation, and training that you already have, and add the elements that are missing.

Find out how Minicom can help extend the life of the IT equipment you already have.

Video: Data Center Monitoring Spoof – Sarah Palin & Larry King

The animated Palin actually gets it: the need to view the health of IT infrastructures in real time, the dynamic nature of the data center, and the value of an automated monitoring system.

What would Sarah Palin say about Minicom’s remote access solution, whose open platform approach accommodates changing needs of the data center?

Volcanic Ash & Data Centers: To be Determined

According to this ChannelWeb article, the volcanic eruption in Iceland that brought air travel to a screeching halt may have some unpleasant ramifications for data centers:

“Data centers are constructed to withstand environmental extremes and natural disasters, but volcanic ash is known for its ability to wreak havoc on desktops, servers, and basically any type of IT infrastructure that has moving parts.”

Lighting doesn’t strike twice, but volcanoes are known for repeated eruptions. Despite a push for Iceland as a prime location for data centers (competitively priced hydroelectric power and geothermal energy, electricity from emission-free, sustainable natural resources), concerns about volcanic ash may cause companies to reevaluate.

Minicom’s Answer to the Ten Things You Won't Find in Your Datacentre in 2010

This article on ZDNet UK gives a concise and cogent forecast of what data centers will look like over the next year.

On the disadvantages of unified architectures (something you won’t see):

“The downside is you reduce your discounting power, and your technology choices are similarly limited by those the vendor will sell you. It is called lock-in.”

Minicom’s Real Needs™ approach in perfect harmony with the school of thought that challenges the benefits of unified architectures, recognizing that it is too limiting. The basic philosophy of our Real Needs approach is to make sure that you have the most efficient hardware for your data center requirements without spending IT dollars for equipment that you don't need, regardless of vendor. That’s why we offer KVM IP capability, remote power control, and remote access management for products from a wide range of companies. We want to give you solutions that make sense technically and economically, rather than forcing you to stay wedded to one vendor.

Another thing you won’t see: single pane of glass

“When it comes to management, vendors promise a single pane of glass — being able to view the whole network and infrastructure from one console. But what they offer usually extends only to their own systems or possible other systems like theirs.”

A ha! Minicom is not scared of enabling access to other systems, and in fact, recognizes and responds to this real life scenario with real life answers. Our remote access management solutions, KVM.net® II and AccessITTM, provide a single pane of glass for all industry-leading, in-band and out-of-band remote access services.

Unique, open platform systems, these cost-effective solutions save on IT expenditure by preserving past investments and preventing vendor lock-in. By embracing products from a wide range of companies and vendors, KVM.net II and AccessIT let organizations leverage their existing product knowledge and training, while reducing the cost of adopting an access management platform.

Prove ZDNet wrong – check out our demo to see how you can have a single pane of glass in 2010!

Video: Data Center Communication Challenges

Funny half a minute video which captures the difficulty of getting heard in the data center, as well as the challenges of cable confusion.

If these guys were using Minicom’s products, cable clutter would not be an issue…

Noisy Data Center? Try Remote Management

Can’t hear yourself think in the data center? Those whirring fans can be more than just an annoyance – they are potentially damaging, with the ability to cause permanent hearing loss.

This article on Processor.com makes concrete suggestions for how to tune out the problem:

“If noise is still an issue for enterprise employees, even more radical action may be needed, Deaderick [Tom Deaderick, director of OnePartner Advanced Technology and Applications Center] says. Consider letting employees work remotely or at home some days of the week. This is also an option for employees who work inside especially loud server rooms. ‘No one complains about the noise in a server room when they are using remote management tools from an office five miles away,’ he says.”

If you decide to go this route, check out Minicom’s remote management tools.

Video: Manage Your Data Center From Your iPhone

OK very cool - The virtual I/O vendor Xsigo recently introduced an iPhone application which enables you to remotely alter an existing implementation, billed as a data center in the palm of your hand (video and more info here).

The glaring omission of any mention of security is a bit worrying. Should potential breaches be a concern?

The Year That Will Be: Data Centers in 2010

It’s always fun to see what industry experts are willing to commit to in print about the upcoming year, and then see what does and does not come to fruition. Matt Stansberry, on SearchDataCenter.com, puts it out there with “The top data center 2010 trends.” Mostly the usual suspects (dip into the cloud, keep a close on energy use), but some new trends as well, such as a direct correlation between the rise in popularity of hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment and the death of the raised floor.

There has also been a recent spate of “How-to” advice for 2010.

Take a look at the slideshow Seven Ways to Make Your Security Budget Pay Off in 2010. Nice visual presentation which reinforces the messages on the slides.

Slide 4 talks about single-sign on as an important security measure – read about how Minicom has implemented single-sign on in our remote access management products with great results.

Who could not use some direction about How to Improve Your IT Planning in 2010? Despite the vagueness of the title, this CIO.com article offers practical and specific suggestions.

Facebook, Google and Amazon: Data Center Developments

Check out these developments in the data center world:

Facebook now has 30,000 servers

Google’s Belgian data center spurns chillers in favor of free cooling

Amazon Web Services’ December outage

Dramatic Data Center Crashes - The Best of 2009

Everyone was a-twitter about these show-stopping outages, news of which circulated like wildfire on social media sites. Funny how the very proliferation of social media is both the cause and the instrument of publication for some crashes. A flurry of tweets about the fall of Gmail in February, for example, would not have been possible during the August 6th three hour downtime on Twitter.

Michael Jackson’s influence remained strong posthumous, as the Web strained under the weight of his June 25th death. Storm clouds made a brief appearance, as the loss of data for T-Mobile Sidekick cast a shadow on much hyped cloud computing.

Interesting information about different ways of handling the sheer volume of Twitter.

Will 2010 boast outages as colorful as this year’s? Watch this space…

The Year That Was: Data Centers in 2009

Check out The top 10 data center stories of 2009.

Lots on environmental monitoring – ASHRAE’s raise of recommended inlet air temperature for servers made the list, as did the growing popularity of hot-aisle/cold aisle containment. Some business deals like Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, and some related economic news such as reduced budgets for data centers. Chock full of links so you can find out more about whatever catches your fancy.

Recipe For Data Center Success Over the Holidays

Brick and mortar storeowners may be hearing their voices echo, but online traffic remains steady as people shop and spend, with sales up 14% from last year’s Cyber Monday (full story from CIO.com here).

According to the article:

“The trend highlights the importance of keeping the data centers powering e-commerce sites and online traffic running smoothly, says Dan Blum, principal analyst for the Burton Group.
‘Availability is crucial,’ he says. ‘Without availability, you are going to lose traffic; you are going to lose business.’ "

Good point, as every crash translates directly into lost business opportunities. The article goes on to mention a number of ways businesses can prepare for the holiday onslaught. Surprisingly, remote access did not make an appearance – given that it is a fast way to access servers at the BIOS level from any place at any time, you would think it would be offered as one way of keeping data centers up and running 24/7.

More Gloom and Doom From Gartner on Upcoming Data Center Challenges

OK OK we get it – there are tough times ahead for IT leaders. Statistics like the projected 650 percent growth in enterprise data over the next five years do cause one to pause (full article here).

The ten key issues that David Cappuccio, Gartner analyst, identified as necessary for IT managers to examine are:


Virtualization
The data deluge
Energy and green IT
Complex resource tracking
Consumerization of IT and social software
Unified communications
Mobile and wireless
System density
Mashups and portals
Cloud computing

Why does social networking get such a bad rap? The article states:

“Social networks are coming into the enterprise whether CIOs want them to or not, Cappuccio said. Twitter use grew an amazing 1,382 percent in 2008 and the majority of new users were between the ages of 39 and 51, he said.

‘It is a growing phenomenon which we can't shut down,’ he said. Employees and customers are using wikis, blogs, Facebook and Twitter and ‘it's affecting you now whether you know it or not.’ Businesses need to examine Web-based social software platforms because they are transforming interactions with both customers and employees, he said.”

Seems more negative than the situation warrants – how can you explain the concern about social networking, a potentially positive development?

Green Data Centers: Good for Pocketbook, Good for Planet, or Both?

Green IT has taken off, with many products and services dedicated to saving energy in data centers.

Some green initiatives are strictly ideological, with an eye towards doing what is best for the environment without addressing the financial cost.

In Europe, a group of global IT firms are pooling their knowledge to create a green guide to all aspects of the data center (full article here). No mention is made in the article about where these environmentally-friendly practices fall on the spectrum in terms of price tag (more than standard, less than standard, same as standard).
Some green strategies only focus on how to save money, without a particular emphasis on the environment, although the two are obviously linked. The story How to Green Your Data Center without a Forklift, by Wayne Rash, makes the following case:

“Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to cut your energy consumption for maximum impact and with minimal attention and effort. Even better, some of the most effective areas of energy savings don’t involve expensive new servers and upgraded cooling.”

The green IT company Viridity approached the issue from both perspectives, making the case that green IT is better for wallets and the environments. According to this article on eWeek:

“Viridity officials say their software will be able to reduce operational costs of data centers by as much as 40 percent and extend the life of data centers by several years.
Major tech players—including IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell—are rolling out their own green data center services, aiming to help businesses reduce energy consumption and cut costs.”
This argument is obviously the most compelling, as it speaks to the moral ground as well as bottom line savings.

Is it true? In your experience, does going green for your IT needs make sense financially, or does it necessarily come with a higher price tag?

Five Strategies for Building Your 2010 Data Center

In light of data center design being listed as one of Gartner’s Top 10 Technologies to Consider for 2010, it seemed appropriate to mention this article on Data Center Journal about Five Strategies for Building Your 2010 Data Center.

No news flashes here, but a nice succinct recap of five strategies that you probably use already:

1. Assess your assets
2. Try to leverage what you already have
3. Prioritize projects that will improve efficiencies and help save you money in the long run
4. Consider outsourcing certain mission-critical applications to realize additional cost savings
5. Don’t trade long-term risk for short-term savings

What would add or subtract from this list?

Slideshow: Gartner’s Top 10 Technologies to Consider for 2010

Hard to resist the allure of the Top 10 lists that are cropping up daily as the end of the year approaches. This slideshow, which lists Gartner’s Top 10 Technologies to Consider for 2010, features all the favorites you would expect (i.e. cloud computing and mobile applications), with some dark horses thrown in for good measure.

For example, the approach to data center design is interesting. Instead of figuring out data center needs for the next 20 years and building, they advocate a modular approach, only looking five years ahead and doing additional building as necessary.

Not sure why data center design on the list – it isn’t really a technology but it is affected by technology.

There are also some reruns from years past (social computing) and some technologies with a specific twist (virtualization for ability).