Data centers expanding out of control - console management can help

With data centers getting larger, problems tend to escalate quickly. Console server systems can give IT managers what they need to respond efficiently.

By Donna Donnawitz
April 19, 2013

The data center industry is facing a transition to third-party services as a key part of its makeup. Just a decade ago, asking a CIO to trust a third party with data center systems may have gotten you a skeptical look or a chuckle. Today, the same question may pique interest or get you laughed out because the concept is so obvious to some now that it is not even worth debating. The rise of cloud computing has made this possible. As cloud computing gained prominence it became so popular, so fast, that many companies began trusting third-party data center services with more and more data, shrinking their internal setup and leading to a major shift in the market.

Before long, many organizations began realizing that while they can't put everything in the cloud, they don't have to, they can just use colocation or other data center hosting services to get rid of almost all of their internal data center systems and have a lot less to worry about from a management setup. This is creating an industry climate in which the data center sector is defined less and less by a large number of small private data centers around the country and instead is built around a smaller number of incredibly large data centers. This changes the management landscape entirely.

Considering management challenges created by large-scale facility setups
When data centers are small and distributed throughout an organization, such as having a small server room in branch offices, establishing a management scheme can be challenging. However, maintaining a data center that features thousands, and possibly millions of servers spread over acres of data center space is a completely different matter. In many cases, larger data centers lead to bigger problems and failures that cascade can have a snowball effect that brings down services for dozens of clients instead of just limiting productivity in a small branch office.

The major issue is that a small problem, such as a hot spot, can escalate into a major issue much more easily in a massive data center. This means that rapid response is key. When facilities are so big that engineers need bikes or carts to travel from part of the data center to another, remote configuration tools are key. Console management can be helpful in this area, as it allows data center leaders to handle data center problems remotely, or from a central location in the data center. This can enable rapid response to configuration problems, improve efficiency and streamline operations in large data centers.

Perle's wide range of 1 to 48 port Perle Console Servers provide data center managers and network administrators with secure remote management of any device with a serial console port. Plus, they are the only truly fault tolerant Console Servers on the market with the advanced security functionality needed to easily perform secure remote data center management and out-of-band management of IT assets from anywhere in the world.

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