CEO's Connection
The Lights Out Datacenter, Myth or Reality?
by Rob Gardos, CEO

Welcome to the Lights Out Datacenter, where all your administration dreams come true.  The intelligence baked into your hardware and software has now obviated the need for any human involvement.  And we know those humans are trouble!  Between the feedings, burpings, and diaper changes it’s a wonder they can get anything done.  Thankfully, my big automation vendor [insert many familiar names here] has assured me that their product does everything: deployment, instantaneous recovery, automated tuning, predictive capacity allocation, making you breakfast, tucking you in at night, etc.  I love the guarantees from sales and marketing folk!

But beyond this fantasy what actual value can we derive from the hype? While we’re a long way from a Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic computer taking over all control of our systems, there have been a variety of exciting products released that bring us one step closer to the Lights Out Datacenter.  While I do not plan on endorsing any specific product, here are some words of advice when looking at automation offerings.

Avoid at all costs the solution that has evolved from the giant monitoring application.

Monitoring thousands of different devices is hard.  Companies have spent years building comprehensive monitoring solutions that are extremely complex and -- for the most part -- functional.  These companies have decided that monitoring is synonymous with workflow automation.  While the marketing literature may agree with this, the product surely does not.  If you have some giant monitoring solution from some giant company and believe it can handle this, think again.  If your objective is to waste some time and not spend additional money on software, then I’m sure you will succeed.  If it is to move your organization closer to self-management and efficiency you will fail.

Avoid the solution from the underlying application vendor you are looking to automate.

Duh!  If you think that this vendor is going to be objective and handle your inevitably heterogeneous infrastructure… you must be smoking something.  And of course this vendor probably makes a lot more money on the underlying application than the automation software.  Where do you think their resources will go?

Avoid the single-solution approach.

We all prefer a one-throat-to-choke situation, but the reality is that technology is specialized.  One solution will simply not work. Your best bet is to find a small number of vendors that can work together to get you what you want.  Be wary of the salesperson that says we can do that (especially if they’re getting commission on the PO, not on the payment.)

So if you’re walking around your Lights Out Datacenter, I recommend bringing a flashlight for the trip.  If you succumb to any of the pitfalls above you better bring a caseload of batteries because you’ll be walking in the dark for decades.

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