Complete control of your IT infrastructure leads to faster incident response, cost savings, increased staff availability, and automation of routine tasks. But “control” involves much more than managing data connectivity and patch panels. All equipment should be documented and managed throughout its lifecycle to provide a total view of the data center’s physical infrastructure.
Active patching solutions (“intelligent” patching) document patches on the active patch panel and focus on data connectivity management; away from active panels, however, these solutions provide management through paper work orders. This requires multiple manual updates, and is subject to error.
DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management) is an alternative to intelligent patch panels. Cormant-CS captures full information about the entire channel of connectivity, including infrastructure and assets. We’ve seen productivity and asset utilization increase by anywhere from 20% to 50% after deployment. Here are a few of its features, which separate it from intelligent patch panels.
Cormant-CS is an Excellent DCIM Choice
- Mobility and Barcodes
- Improved Cost-to-Benefit Ratios
- MACs in Physical IT Infrastructure
- Cabling Independence
- Integration
- No Power or Additional Hardware
- Implementation
- Management of Real Problems
- No Spreadsheet Misery
Cormant-CS is fully mobile to make sure records are updated in real-time, ensuring data accuracy. Tablets and handheld computers support barcode and RFID scanning of cables. (For more on the importance of mobility to DCIM, look here.)
By maximizing the use of your entire infrastructure, you can potentially achieve millions in savings. The cost of Cormant-CS is typically 0.01% of the total cost of a data center or campus. Because active patch monitoring focuses only on structured cabling, this limits the savings it offers, and it costs between 20% and 35% of total structured cabling system costs. (Read this post for information about Getting Management to Approve DCIM.)
Cormant-CS’ combination of network, client, web and mobile components ensures extreme efficiency during connectivity and infrastructure changes, especially at the work area. All changes are made once, and are immediately documented on the handheld. This provides data confidence to improve speed and efficiency when planning further changes.
Completely configurable and independent of cabling vendors, you can document any cabling brand or connectivity type (including non-structured cabling). You’re never locked in to one vendor for panels and special patch cords, and you’re free to mix and match.
Unlike active patching systems, Cormant-CS exchanges data with other systems and hardware. The Cormant-CS web services XML API and SNMP/WMI/XML/CLI scripting engine come as part of the core product. With the built-in scripting engine c# and vb.net, scripts can be written to extend functionality, as well as to interact with network devices and services.
As a software/mobile solution, this IT infrastructure management tool doesn’t negatively impact environmental aspects of your data center. No additional planning is necessary to deploy.
Cormant-CS can be implemented in new, existing or retrofit projects without downtime, conserving time and money. The software can even be installed to a virtual machine to speed up rollout. (Read our post on Implementing DCIM or our post with helpful DCIM Deployment Tips!)
Cormant-CS users implement this solution to manage assets and connectivity, but also to manage power, heat, RU space, inventory, etc. – and all records are updated continuously.
All data is stored in a single database as a shared resource between groups. This allows direct access to the information each group needs, preventing wasted time and reducing workload.
Learn More About Enterprise DCIM Connectivity
Portable, practical and usable, the Cormant-CS enterprise DCIM connectivity and infrastructure management system provides a holistic approach to managing data center assets, power, connectivity and space.
