Automated Asset Tracking in the Data Center

Transcription

1 Automated Asset Tracking in the Data Center How IBM Reduced the Time/Cost of Tracking Data Center Assets Copyright 2015 RF Code Inc. All Rights Reserved

2 Manual Asset Tracking Challenges High cost of manually inventorying asset information Time Staff Painful reconciliation processes High cost of inaccurate asset location information Inaccurate capacity planning or no capacity planning Cost of information latency Non-compliance penalties Lease mismanagement Over provisioning High cost of security exposures Lack of asset location visibility 2

3 Understanding the Real Costs of Manual Asset Tracking Example: 500 racks, 30 IT devices per rack (15,000 devices) Basic assumptions: 4 year asset life span 2 inventory collections per year (per IAITAM guidelines) Average of 60 seconds per asset to manual collect inventory information 10% of inventoried assets require reconciliation 60 minutes per unreconcilied asset for dispositioning Asset repository is 90% accurate Average time to search and find an asset is 4 hours 0.25% assets go missing and can t be found IT employee burden rate of $100 per hour 3

4 Understanding the Real Costs of Manual Asset Tracking Activity Yearly Cost Man Days Inventory Collection $52K 66 Inventory Reconciliation $300K 375 Finding Misplaced Assets $192K 240 Manual Repository Updates $20K 25 Replacement of Misplaced Assets $150K n/a Total: $714K 706 4

5 Technologies for Asset Tracking in the Data Center Accuracy Level of Automation Implementation Costs Execution Costs Human Read Labels Low None Low Very High Barcode High None Low Very High Passive RFID High Low Medium High Active RFID High High High Low Note: Execution costs are reoccurring every year. 5

6 Fully Automated Asset Tracking Benefits Eliminate manual labor associated with inventory collection and inventory reconciliation Frees up staff to perform other important tasks and functions Much easier to reconcile missing assets hours or days after they are missing than months later (the single most costly activity in physical asset tracking) Accurate up-to-date asset inventory is always available Faster find, fix, and repair actions Enables real-time capacity planning decisions Enables DCIM applications to correlate physical asset location with asset usage and infrastructure usage driving data center optimization Improved management of extended warranties and leases based on actual asset usage and location Reduce security exposures via increased real-time asset visibility 6

7 IBM: Smarter IT Asset Management Presented by Brent Kiger Global RFID Technical Solutions Architect, IBM Integrated Supply Chain Asset Management Services Copyright 2015 RF Code Inc. All Rights Reserved

8 Smarter IT Asset Management Pilot We Used It First Issues we faced: Expensive physical inventory costs Long, costly reconciliagons Numerous audit inventories Assets moving without proper change management Increasing environmental monitoring costs IBM s Pilot Data Center: 48,000 sq feet 5000 total devices Included all asset types mainframes, blade servers, disk, and tape storage Monitored Storage/Staging room Monitored Equipment entrance Monitored ManTrap entrance 8

9 Smarter IT Asset Management Components Smarter Asset Tags are installed on all assets to be tracked Smarter Environmental Tags are installed at all points where environmental data needs to be reported Readers are installed in the data center ceiling and in any other location (ramps, docks, storage rooms, etc.) where assets may travel Rack Locators can be installed in individual racks to provide rack level granularity (optional component currently being tested) Multi-tiered Software Application reads tag signals, relates to established asset data, generates alerts, and provides for seamless integration to back end asset management and environmental systems. IBM Software Applications, including Tivoli s Maximo, Monitoring, and DCIM products, integrate the real time tag information with the key attributes tracked on assets and environmentals. 9

10 Smarter IT Asset Management Architecture Inputs of new assets Asset Manager Zone Manager Maximo ITM DCIM Alerts Rack Locators Readers Asset/Sensor Tags 10

11 Improved inventory accuracy from 71.8% to 99.7% Identified 13.8% of asset movements have no change ticket Reduced reconciliation time of lost assets by 80% Lessons Learned Reduced locating time of assets for audits, maintenance, etc. by 94% Eliminated virtually all the cost of the manual inventory process Temperature adjustments saved approximately $10k ROI currently between 9-13 months Based solely on asset management costs Does not include data loss exposure or environmental monitoring 11

12 Initial Deployment 5 sites in US and Europe 40,000 assets 200 temperature and humidity and 2 differential air pressure sensors 12 Month Plan 10 sites in US, Europe, and Latin America Additional 30,000 assets 24 Month Plan addition deployments in US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific Determining funding requirements now As a result, IBM is deploying Smarter IT Asset Management across all internal data centers worldwide over the next 2 years IBM s Next Steps 12

13 The Data Analytics Possibilities are Endless Asset Inventory Activity Asset receipt tracking from the loading dock Established assets that are no longer reporting New tags signaling that are not currently in the asset repository and on the floor Unauthorized asset movement Site to Site Receiving Alerts Disposal Site Receiving Alerts Rack Level monitoring Special Area Reporting Storage rooms Man Traps Test/development labs Surveillance system interface data and time interface Environmental Monitoring Temperature and Humidity Differential Air Pressure Fluid detection PDU Power Usage Infrastructure Diagnostics Reader Alerts - List of any readers that are not currently active Reader Overload Jamming or dysfunctional condition Low Battery Alerts 13

14 Thermal Map of IBM s Pilot Data Center Utilizes 30 temperature and humidity tags and the existing readers and software. Built in integration between with IBM s ITM for Energy Management and Maximo for Energy Optimization products. Annualized, $10K in savings from temperature adjustments. More savings potential once Siemens BMS integration is complete. 14

15 Initial Impact on Local Data Center Operations No traditional physical inventory at Smarter IT Asset Management enabled sites Reconciliation activity is handled on an immediate basis System detects asset event activity and generates appropriate alert Personnel receives alert and takes immediate action Event/Alert activity is tracked and reported at regular intervals Random Spot Check sampling is performed to insure system integrity Hot/cold spots are easily identified and corrected through building management systems 15

16 The recognized global leader in data center asset lifecycle management and monitoring, and Workplace IoT SoluGons Copyright 2015 RF Code Inc. All Rights Reserved