Data centers have seen an explosion of enterprise software, mobile applications, and data storage over the past five years.  So it should come as no surprise that the cost of data center downtime has risen dramatically alongside the bevy of interconnected devices and mission critical systems that have inundated facilities nationwide.
 
According to a recent Emerson Network Power report, 91% of U.S. data centers have experienced an unplanned outage in the past two years, with data centers losing an average of $690,204 per outage. Additionally, unplanned data center outages over the past year alone have cost 67 of the report participants a collective loss of over $46.2 million dollars.
 
At a cost equaling over $7,900 per minute of outage, it’s clearly in your best interest to determine whether your data center is at risk and act before it’s too late. And, while downtime is nearly impossible to eliminate altogether, a combination of intelligent monitoring solutions and operational process changes can drastically lower your costs.
 
Enter DCIM, Sunbird’s data center infrastructure management software. It enables power and environmental monitoring, and energy management -- the lack of which leads to the most costly causes of unplanned downtime. It also provides the ability to better manage assets, change and capacity by providing floor plan design capabilities, an extensive device library, and device life cycle management.
 
In fact, respondents who had implemented a DCIM solution reduced downtime duration by nearly 60% on average. Why? DCIM notifies users to potential hazards before they occur by way of intelligent environmental monitoring.  For instance, a user may receive a threshold based alert when equipment is in danger of failing due to undercooling. Equipment failure is a leading cause of downtime.
 
Similarly, an intelligent PDU that is integrated into the DCIM solution can provide real-time load monitoring that can warn users of impending energy capacity issues.  Another costly cause of downtime, human error, can be fought by way of colored PDUs and SecureLock cables that make it easier to ensure redundancy and quickly troubleshoot when trouble arises.
 
Implemented correctly, DCIM and accompanying power, environmental, and energy solutions will help data centers to avoid the steep cost of being unprepared for unplanned downtime.