SmarRack DCAM Solution

The Last Gap of Data Center Operation

SmarRack-Data Center Assets Management Solution

[email protected] 18676342132

by Arron Zhao

The Trouble of IT Assets Operation

Bigger QuantityToo Much Work

More ProceduresCannot Manage Well

More StaffLower Efficiency

Maintenance Process: include regular maintenance, change management, testing cost and etc.Staff Labor: include training, education, turnover, hiring and etc.Technology and Component: include hardware, software, network and etc.

Maintenance Process40%

Staff Labor40%

Technology and Component20%

According to the research of Gartner, the proportion of facility management cost comprise of：

IT Assets Operation Cost Analysis

Gartner’s research shows that, 50% of the CIOs interviewed think lack of automation is the

main reason why IT operation cost is too high. Manual operation is of high risk, low efficient, and

high labor cost.

Source of the problem: Lack of automation

The quantity of assets is growing fast. It is hard to find a certain failed device quickly. And the assets change management is completed all by human, it cannot ensure the accuracy and timing requirements.

Eight Problems to Solve

Rack unit is not monitored, cannot get the accurate

utilization rate.

No operation checking, easily lead to accident.

No accurate assets sum-up data for financial department

5

Cannot find the failed device, restoring time is long.

Assets change management is recorded by man, which is

of high mistake rate.

More complex procedures, lower efficiency More cost

More and more staff

Rack-unit-level Real-time Assets Monitoring is the basis of automated operation.

Make the uncontrollable controlled, to ensure the consistency of

business

Contact tag technologyActive and wired.

Raritan’s product is still not accepted by market after 8 years.

Data center is full of devices, which will cause vibration. The racks will be under vibrating status 365x24x7. This can be regarded as a flight flies and vibrates 365x24x7, the lasting vibration is a huge challenge for connectors, especially for the connectors with multiple small pins. Besides the vibration, there are also dirt, moisture, heat, corrosive material, static electricity and many other risks for the connector. Frequent maintenance will be need to ensure the stability of the connector. Contact tag technology is a experimental product, cannot be deployed massively.

Three Generations of Rack-unit-level Managing Technology1st Generation

Example:

RFID TechnologyPassive and wireless

Raritan’s product is still not accepted by market after 6 years.

RFID technology is very limited in rack-unit-level assets monitoring, the reasons are:1、 RFID cannot realize precise positioning.2、 RFID cannot ensure stable communication. Because the complex environment of data center, passive RFID’s effective range varies. Tag cannot be read constantly and stably. 3、 Cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. Because the distance between adjacent reader is too short( distance between rack unit is 44mm), it will cause unexpected reading. The overall accuracy is about only 70%.4、 Cannot achieve maintenance free and high reliability

Three Generations of Rack-unit-level Managing Technology2nd Generation

Example:

A breakthrough of rack-unit-level monitoring technology. Active and battery-free RFID tag, with passive RF reader. MC-RFIoT is invented by Quan Liu in 2013. It inherited the advantage of RFID technology, and overcame RFID’s limitation in rack-unit-level assets monitoring. Digitalor’s SmarRack module and UTAG are based on MC-RFIoT technology, so realized the features of high reliability, high accuracy, precise positioning and maintenance free. It is the only product that fulfills the need of rack-unit-level monitoring and smart operation.

Three Generations of Rack-unit-level Managing Technology3rd Generation

MC-RFIoT TechnologyActive, battery-free and wirelessUltra-high stability and reliability

UTAG Specification

* The‘identify card’of asset, the information is written is the electronic digital tag. It will move alone with the asset it attaches to during the whole life cycle.* There is a 3M sticker for attaching. Remove the cover of 3M sticker, and paste the sticker to the corresponding asset.* After mounting the asset in the rack, attach its UTAG to the SmarRack reader aligned with the rack unit, at which the asset is at, then SmarRack module will get the asset information.* The distance between UTAG and reader is fixed by magnetic attaching. Easy to operate, stable performance, and good user-experience.

The information inside of UTAG can be written via UTAG writer of SmarRack module

The master module must be at the top end, and slave modules can be joint in any sequence. The SATA connector on the top of master module are split into 12V DC power connector and RJ45 network connector( or only RJ45 in PoE version). Every reader of the module is aligned to one rack unit. After mounting asset to the rack, just need to place its UTAG to the corresponding reader, the information of the asset will be uploaded to database via TCP/IP.

SmarRack Module SpecificationThe attributes of SmarRack module

High-precision positioning module. Mounted to rack with fixing bracket. A SmarRack assembly comprises of one master module and several slave modules. The length of module can be 5U or 6U. By different combination of 5U and 6U modules, the assembly can adapt to racks of different heights. The connection between modules are SATA connector.

* UTAG writer is connected to client PC via USB connector. Place the round end of UTAG to the center of UTAG writer, then the information of the UTAG can be edited in the software.* Standard version can edit the basic information of the asset.* Pro version can edit both basic information and extended information. * By integration with barcode scanner, can realize automated tag issuing.

UTAG Writer Specification

Navigator DCAM Software

Navigator DCAM software support real-time rack-unit-level assets monitoring and diverse automated data center operation functions.

SmarRack Mobile APP SmarRack mobile APP is the extended function of Navigator DCAM. It can receive working ticket remotely, and manage off-rack assets by scanning UTAG with NFC.

Rack with Pre-installed SmarRack

Standard 42U rack, universal design, with SmarRack module pre-installed.

The Value of SmarRack

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Precise positioning asset to rack unit, help operator find the failed device quickly.

1、 Real-time IT Assets Positioning

2、 Automated Assets Change Recording

Automated rack-unit-level assets change recording, includes device adding, device removal, position transfer. By using SmarRack, operators can save the time to do assets position recording, and the position record is 100% accurate.


* Monitor the utilization rate of every rack* Monitor the utilization rate of the whole data center

80%Provide accurate rack space utilization rate, for making escalation decision. After deploying SmarRack, the utilization rate increases by 10%~20%


3、 Rack Space Utilization Rate Monitoring

* Green means the unit is available* Red means not available * Yellow means need maintenance.

Scenario: SmarRack can calculate the combined max power of the devices in the rack, if about to be overloaded, all the LEDs turn to red, means the units are unavailable. If any other device added on, SmarRack will make audio alarm.

4、 Operational Status LED Indicator

The LED indicators on SmarRack can show the operational status of the rack unit.


* When assets change happens, SmarRack will calculate the total weight of the assets in the rack. * If the rack is about to be overloaded, there will be warning on site and in software. * If already overloaded, there will be constant warning on site and in software.

5、Weight Overload Warning


6、 Power Overload Warning


* When assets change happens, SmarRack will calculate the total power of the assets in the rack. * If the rack is about to be overloaded, there will be warning on site and in software. * If already overloaded, there will be constant warning on site and in software.

7、 Lifecycle Monitoring and Warning

* After every device is deployed, SmarRack will monitor the life cycle of the device. * When the device is approaching the end lifecycle, there will be early warning both on site and in software. * When already reached the full lifecycle, there will be constant warning both on site and in software.

Deployed Approaching theEnd of Lifecycle

Reached FullLifecycle

WarningEarly Warning


8、 Automated Assets Sum-upComparison of Accuracy Comparison of Efficiency


85%

100% 15000

80%

10.3

9、 Assets Residual Value Calculation

To get the accurate value of fixed assets, SmarRack DCAM can calculate the residual value of each server, according to the lifecycle, time since deployed, depreciation rate, original value and etc. of each asset. This function can give the accurate data of fixed assets to financial department.


10、Mobile APP

Monitor the on-rack servers from anywhere, anytime.

Manage off-rack servers by using NFC function of mobile terminal.


11、 SmarRack PDCA Closed-loop Management

Plan Do

CheckAction


25

A. Ensure the consistency of your business

SmarRack can ensure quick action of maintenance. And automatically recognize operational error, warn the operator to correct in time, make the risk of manual operation to the lowest. SmarRack can keep the availability your data center, no matter how many assets are in it.B. Improve the efficiency and accuracy.

Simplify the process of operation, and eliminate operational errors.Automated assets information recording and sum-up, 100% accuracy ensured.C. Save cost Save the cost of maintenance process by 80% Save the cost of labor by 10%~30%


The Key of Differentiation

By lowering the risk of data center operation, to ensure the consistency of business, and lowering the operational cost, will be the key of differentiation.

SmarRack is the core of this differentiation.

Scenario 1: Add device

How Operational Process Changed After Deploying SmarRack

• Simplify the process of adding new device.

• After mounting the device in the rack, all the information will be uploaded to database by simply attaching the UTAG to the reader of SmarRack module. No extra manual operation is needed.

MountDevice

Read the information

of the assets

Paste the tag to the

device

Edit the location

info. manually

Finish

MountDevice

AttachSmarRack

tagFinish

Import the asset’s info to CMDB

Now

Before

• Simplify the process of removing device, just detach the UTAG from reader after dismount the device

• SmarRack database will automatically recognize the removal of the device. If the device enters inventory or other racks, it still can be traceable via integrated access control system.


Scenario 1: Remove device

Dismount Device

Edit the availability

of the rack

Record the

removal info.

Finish

DismountDevice

Finish

Delete the info. of the

asset in CMDB

Before

Now

• When moving the device, operators do not need to record the

change in database, just focus on moving the device is enough.


Scenario 3: Move deviceBefore

Now

Dismount the device from old

rack

Mount theDevice to new rack

Edit the availability of the new

rack to ‘NO’

Finish

Dismount the device from old

rack

Finish

Edit the availability of the old

rack to ‘YES’

Edit the location

info. manually

Mount theDevice to new rack

Wait for next check sum without any solution

• Before: Heavy workload, annoying environment, no method to ensure the accuracy.

• After: Fully automated sum-up, no labor needed. SmarRack DCAM can also provide diverse report to financial department and purchasing department, for example, the distribution map of device, lifecycle report, maintenance report.


Before

Now

Scenario 4: Assets sum-up

Finance department provides the finance list

Find all the

devices in IDC

Device inventory

check sum

Finish

Automatic Report

Generator

Operation department

provides the device

list

Check sum with

the finance list

Inaccurateresult

Finance department reports your

mistakes

You promise to figure out the mistakes

next time

• After: When hardware failure happens, SmarRack mobile APP can notify engineer to fix, engineer can find the device quickly by searching for the flashing LED on site.

• Before: Finding the target device will take most of the operational time, it lowers the efficiency of operation


Before

Now

Scenario 5: Device targeting

System find

hardware failure

Tell the location info. to the

maintenance staff

Find the device in

IDCFinish

System find

hardware failure

Finish

Find the location record of the device

in CMDB

Maintenance staff receives

the push message via

APP

Find the flashing LEDs that indicate the location

• Before: Mostly, the asset’s position information recorded by man is not accurate. The reliable method is to check one by one on site.

• After: One click to get the full report of 100% accuracy.


Before

Now

Scenario 6: Escalation Plan

Check the data in CMDB

Analyze the data and write the

report

Finish

System generates the

report automatically

Finish

Re-check the devices in IDC one

by one

Export the report

Comments from ExpertsSmarRack filled‘the last gap’of automated data center operation. ---Yang Shideng, IDC Operation Service Director of Maslong

John Curran

Digitalor's SmarRack really surprise me with its unique patent technology and simple design, which improves the product performance and sustainability during assets' lifecycle. SmarRack is a great invention that will impact on data center greatly.

Avocent, VP of Product Management

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Dmitry Bokotey

Digitalor's SmarRack product resolves the issues for IT assets tracking, and impressed me. It is sexiest and innovative IoT product for data center, we would love to integrate SmarRack into our platform for a long term business partner with Digitalor.

nuPSYSCTO & Founder

Our Customers

Engineering

SmarRack DCAM Solution