New Aperture VISTA Capacity Management application enables data centre managers to measure consumption of critical resources and forecast future infrastructure needs while lowering costs and managing risk.
Aperture Technologies Inc., a leading global provider of software for managing the physical infrastructure of data centres, has launched Aperture VISTA Capacity Management, a new application that enables data centre managers to better understand and predict the consumption of power, cooling, space and other physical resources.
In order to effectively manage the data centre, it is essential that
managers are able to understand the capacity remaining within critical
infrastructure resources such as power, cooling and (floor/rack) space. If
the data centre is not managed proactively, resource conflicts can occur
which increase the likelihood of a disruption in service. When capacity is
poorly managed, there is a greater risk of under-provisioning (which can
delay the roll-out of critical systems) or over-provisioning (which makes
operations inefficient and unnecessarily expensive). With the lead time to
acquire, provision or build new data centres measured in years,
organisations need a long term plan for forecasting when and what type of
infrastructure resources they will need.
Aperture collaborated closely with its leading Fortune 100 customers to
develop this new application which is the industry's first full-function
capacity management tool. Aperture VISTA Capacity Management enables
organisations to track infrastructure usage over time and apply forecasts of
future application pipelines to predict the consumption of data centre
resources. It enables data centres to determine when key resources will run
out, providing plenty of lead-time for future data centre planning and
minimising the risks associated with outages or service disruptions. By
enabling data centre resources to be managed accurately, Aperture VISTA
Capacity Management enables organisations to minimise operational cost
without running the risk of under-provisioning. Organisations can also save
the costs associated with short term leased or rented space or other stop
gap measures resulting from inadequate forecasting and planning.
Using Aperture VISTA Capacity Management, businesses can capture their past
infrastructure usage, understand future trends based on past use and report
on key capacity metrics and thresholds. There are processes for modelling
planned projects impacting the infrastructure, which include the flowing of
those projects into equipment provisioning work requests when committed. The
software enables managers to maintain the Capacity Management Plan, assign
capacity to business units for budgeting purposes, investigate scenarios
around infrastructure use, and support new infrastructure build-outs. By
understanding the number of months remaining on key parameters of capacity,
managers can build a business case for how and when new infrastructure
should be provisioned and deliver the services required to support the
business in a cost effective manner.
"Facilities management and IT management have typically not cooperated on
data centre planning to the level needed for today's enterprise," said Bill
Clifford, chairman and CEO of Aperture Technologies. "Historically, capacity
management of the data centre only considered floor and rack space, and did
not have to cover power and cooling capacities. IT did not need to
communicate with Facilities to understand when capacity would be exceeded.
Today, with high density equipment changing the way data centres are
operated, IT and Facilities must cooperate in planning how resources are
allocated, ensuring they are aligned with the needs of the business. This
requires the tools and capabilities that Aperture is providing."
Bill Clifford added, "Aperture VISTA Capacity Management furthers the vision
of Aperture VISTA to bring these groups together under a professional data
centre management practice, which significantly improves the efficiency and
capability of the data centre."
"Our data centres are absolutely essential to the success of our business
and so in this area we only work with companies which we know and trust,
such as Aperture," says Mark Scott, head of customer data centres at
Fujitsu. "The foundation for managing the data centre is based on the
management of capacity: whether its cooling, power, or space. Aperture
Capacity Management will allow us to accurately and meticulously plan the
growth and lifecycle of our data centres and all of its components while
understanding the effects different scenarios have on future capacity. This
will prevent downtime, ensure the longevity of our data centres, help us
manage projects and save us money."
Richard Villars, vice president for Storage Systems research at IDC said,
"Enterprises are facing a period of rapid data centre expansion as they and
their customers create and store more rich content and make more copies of
their data for decision support and improved application availability.
Hard-pressed enterprises will need to maximise their use of current data
centre capacity by leveraging best practices and carefully managing data
centre infrastructure and architecture to avoid potential outages due to
power and cooling capacity issues. While storage capacity expansion in
current data centres is inevitable, improving or even maintaining data
centre availability will require a keen understanding of future storage
trends so that proper planning for data centre capacity growth can ensue."
Aperture VISTA Capacity Management is an add-on application to Aperture
VISTA, the market-leading application for planning and managing the data
centre physical infrastructure.
About Aperture
Aperture is the leading global provider of software for managing the
physical infrastructure of data centres. Aperture's solutions reduce
operational risk and improve efficiency through the visual management of
data centre resources. Aperture delivers the best practice processes that
enable organisations to take control of an increasingly complex physical
infrastructure including equipment, space, power, cooling, network and
storage.
With over 20 years of experience, Aperture provides organisations with the
information required to optimise their data centre operations, delivering
better services at the lowest cost. Aperture's customers include the
world's largest companies, half of which are Fortune 1000 and Global 500
organisations.
About Fujitsu Services
Fujitsu Services is one of the leading IT services companies in Europe,
Middle East and Africa. It has an annual turnover of 2.29 billion (?3.33
billion); employs almost 18,000 people and operates in over 20 countries. It
designs, builds and operates IT systems and services for customers in the
financial services, telecom, retail, utilities and government markets. Its
core strength is the delivery of IT infrastructure management and
outsourcing across desktop, networking and data centre environments,
together with a full range of related services, from infrastructure
consulting through integration and deployment.
Headquartered in London, Fujitsu Services is the European-centred IT
services arm of the Fujitsu Group. The Fujitsu Group is a US$40.6 billion
(?33.4 billion) leader in the provision of IT systems and services for the
global marketplace.
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