The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a seismic shift in the workplace, ushering in an unprecedented era of lockdowns, social distancing, and remote working. In our coronavirus-afflicted world, technology has emerged as the key to keeping businesses operating and growing. In the longer term, notes the International Data Corporation (IDC), “organizations will leverage technology to underpin every process, initiative, and value chain as they journey to the next normal.”
Data centers are part of this new reality, with the pandemic serving as an ongoing stress test for data center monitoring and asset tracking functions. Many industries rushed to move funds from existing programs to critical digital projects, signaling a notable shift in perceptions and attitudes. It’s not that they were blind to the realities of deploying digital platforms and tools, but simply rolling it out it at their own pace. Against the backdrop of the pandemic-driven restrictions (social distancing in the main), technology is becoming increasingly relevant and crucial for data centers looking to limit the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.
Among B2B companies, 56% pointed to weak tech infrastructure as an emerging hurdle. In the data center space, an IDC survey found that for 78% of companies, the pandemic limited physical access while increasing the demand for business applications from remote workers. The IDC predicts, though, that 70% of companies will eventually recover, and accelerate the integration of digital tools and platforms into their operations.
How has COVID-19 Impacted Digital Infrastructure?
Remote work has forced a sweeping rethink on the part of data center providers. Firms are rapidly shifting from on-site operations to remote data center management platforms and remote monitoring tools. The use of this category of technology has increased substantially this year, according to data center providers and industry analysts, who noted further that this trend is here to stay.
Datacenter providers are using the already-out-there technology – such as RF Code’s automated, real-time asset tracking and management platforms, remote environmental, as well as power monitoring tools – to help customers with limited physical access to their infrastructure while limiting their own personnel’s foot traffic in their facilities.
"If they (staff) need operational support, they can save time and money by using a portal to request on-demand remote hands services, such as server reboots, telecommunications support, rack and stack, OS loads, and tape back-ups," said Mitch Fonseca, VP of data center products at Cyxtera Technologies, an RF Code client.
Deploying these digital systems has proven crucial, as 40% of data centers were limited in their capacity to manually access infrastructure. While data centers are not fully ready to become completely autonomous – maintenance and systems administration teams are still essential staff to have on-site even during the pandemic – they can configure monitoring tools to forward work functions to off-site personnel.
Amid the pandemic and social distancing directives, data centers with remote monitoring capabilities are empowered to collect data from distant locations. Armed with the data, they can then determine priorities. Remote monitoring tools grant off-site workers full visibility to system statuses in a scalable fashion. They could, for example, remotely evaluate bandwidth usage, monitor power consumption, and identify servers that need to be serviced or retired. Those entities that invested in the technologies before the pandemic struck saw their investments pay off when the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 became unsettlingly apparent.
The Benefits of Asset Management and Asset Tracking?
Asset Tracking
- Improves efficiency.
- Allows for proactive monitoring of critical assets.
- Significantly improves work-in-process tracking.
- Significantly simplifies audits.
- Improved audits lead to better compliance.
Asset Management
- Reduces or eliminates downtime.
- Promotes happy and loyal customers.
- Optimizes the value of data center investments.
- Reduces maintenance service calls.
- Ensures organizational accountability.
- Provides measurable inputs for business budgeting and planning.
- Enables financial transparency.
- Reduces compliance risks and improves audit efficiency.
RF Code: Your Data Center Solution for Adverse Conditions
For data centers, the most crucial lesson drawn from COVID-19 is to be always vigilant and prepared for extremely challenging and unexpected scenarios. The technology for remote asset management and monitoring has always been available. The crucial difference is that many data centers that made it through unscathed have already been using the technology.
RF Code – with a stellar 24-year track record of designing remote monitoring and remote management solutions – has helped the world’s biggest data center operators improve efficiency, save money, reduce risks and comply with regulations. IBM, Vodafone, Digital Fortress, and DataVita, among our big-name client list, rely on RF Code to provide the world’s most innovative data center monitoring tools.
RF Code’s solutions feature open APIs, which allow for seamless integration with existing applications used in the data center space. These include ITSM, BMS services, and DCIM solutions. From the first phase of data center deployment, RF Code’s cutting-edge solutions are natively configured for remote management.
RF Code uses patented active RFID technology attached to valuable critical assets to track them wherever they may be located. Our software suite harnesses advanced AI and machine learning modules, rendering them ideal for use in edge server rooms and hyperscale computing.
Our full suite of data center solutions delivers automated real-time asset management, environmental and power monitoring that eliminates the need for costly and error-prone manual processes. RF Code expertly deploys sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, hot aisles, returns, ducting, and cooling systems. Our data capture and reader systems work in tandem with a dashboard-based monitoring desk.
RF Code’s powerful reporting capability tools affords data center service providers a bird’s eye view of their infrastructure and business position. Companies are thus in pole position to measure the data against any metric and KPI to identify potential hurdles, address issues, discover insights, and grow their business.
Data centers are vast and complex, populated by various hardware and software configured to different specifications. Their environmental conditions vary, not just from area to area but also from rack to rack. Simple oversights can lead to fluid leaks and damage to critical and expensive assets and infrastructure.
RF Code takes care of your data center needs through our range of cutting-edge solutions. Whether it’s automated real-time asset tracking and management platforms or real-time remote power and environmental monitoring tools, our video visibility services enable smart problem detection and resolution, increased workforce efficiency, instant alerts for remote, lights-out, and unstaffed locations.
During this time of global turmoil, we want to help you stay operational and serve your users around the clock. Want to learn how easy it is to deploy and use real-time asset tracking and monitoring in your data center? Schedule an RF Code demo today - we'd love to talk with you!