Almost every task you can imagine is much more difficult to complete successfully if you’re required to accomplish it while wearing a blindfold. This is certainly the case with data center configuration.

The statistics are overwhelming in favor of providing visuals to assist in grasping complex concepts. Certainly, data center design, build, and maintenance would qualify as a challenging endeavor.

Studies have demonstrated the vast majority of our population—some 65%—are visual learners.

It’s been said a picture is worth a thousand words, but that might have been a gross understatement. Research conducted by the 3M Corporation showed that the brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text!

On top of this, education scientists estimate that people remember 80% of what they see in contrast to only 20% of what they read.

So, it only makes sense that an interactive visual representation of data center configurations would be welcomed by designers and engineers tasked with making computing magic out of miles of fiber and mountainous stacks of electronics.

This is where Tier44 stepped in to develop a sophisticated visual system to work in partnership with the industry standard ServiceNow software.

ServiceNow provides high level workflow systems for an organization’s combined information technology, risk management, and security operations objectives.

Tier44’s EM/8 Data Center Management solution offers additional and fully integrated functionality to the ServiceNow platform. This solution caters specifically to the needs of the data center industry.

These features include (among many) data center monitoring and management functionality. It also collects power, utilization, and temperature information as well as providing trend lines, history, graphs, and aggregations.

That alone makes it a powerful solution for those working with data centers. However, what really makes Tier44’s solution stand out is its visualization capabilities which both simplify and amplify the process of configuration and monitoring.

“For those who know ServiceNow, there’s tables, there’s forms and you have a CDP (Customer Data Platform),” said Clemens Pfeiffer, CEO of Tier 44. “You can store all your data center information. But what you don’t have is a graphical representation.”

“What we added,” he continued, “are things like elevation views and floorplan capabilities to show you graphically where the racks are located and how they are arranged in your data center. So now you have the aggregate of power and space and network information all in a single view.”

“We’ve added the missing pieces that allow you to visually see how much space is being used, what networks are available, and what outlets are still available in the power strip.”

What makes the Tier44 offering so unique is it has the “Built On Now” classification meaning it’s fully integrated with the ServiceNow platform as opposed to being an unconnected third party provider.

This eliminates the need for expensive data and workflow integration as well as cross environment testing and release planning. There isn’t any interface confusion, so users familiar with ServiceNow can operate it seamlessly. And it also has end-to-end security and access control as well as an automated testing framework provided by the core platform.

This full integration carries across the entire lifecycle of your data center.

“Everyone on your team sees the same information,” said Pfeiffer. “That includes the individual who purchases the server, to the one who commissions it, to the one who maintains it, and even the capacity planner. Everyone is looking at the same data.”

Innovation of this kind, coupled with a proven track record of performance quality is something we are always looking to provide our customers at Instor Solutions.

We have an excellent partnership with Tier44.  If you have any questions about their software solutions and what they can provide for your organization, make sure to contact us today.