Winning a DCIM deal with a company like Facebook - sell vs. partner

I wrote a blog post on the Facebook DCIM deal that got away from the DCIM vendors.

So let's hypothetically go through a way that a company could work with Facebook on a DCIM solution.  Part of what I am going to describe as a method is knowing people inside Facebook and other of the big data center operators.

First, make a choice, are you going to try and sell what you have or work with Facebook to develop a solution.  Most would try to sell what they have.  I would try to put a proposal on the table to work with Facebook to create a DCIM solution that works for Facebook.  This is NOT a customization of your solution for Facebook.  It is an opportunity to get insight on what is of real value to Facebook for a DCIM solution.

An example of the concept of insight is Slate's article on Google's Jeff Dean.

The real Jeff Dean admits he isn’t a machine-learning expert but says he’s eager to help out with his skills in building scalable, high-performance systems.

Contrary to what the Jeff Dean facts imply, Dean says simply sitting down to write the perfect program is rarely the best way to tackle a problem. Instead, his process often begins with back-of-the-envelope calculations to find the optimal trade-off between quality and speed for a given process. “In a lot of these areas, from machine translation to search quality, you’re always trying to balance what you can do computationally with each query,” he says. “Maybe you can’t afford the ideal [solution], but if we can approximate it in a certain way, you can get 98 percent of the benefit with 1 percent of the computation.”

Another choice is are you building your solution on a Microsoft stack or on open source.  Most don't know that companies like Facebook have many people who have a preference which favors open source.  Down this path is whether you have built on top of NoSQL.  Why NoSQL as described below - simplicity, scaling and availability are easier with NoSQL and it can be a platform for big data and real-time web applications.

A NoSQL database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that uses looser consistency models than traditional relational databases. Motivations for this approach include simplicity of design, horizontal scaling and finer control over availability. NoSQL databases are often highly optimized key–value stores intended for simple retrieval and appending operations, with the goal being significant performance benefits in terms oflatency and throughput. NoSQL databases are finding significant and growing industry use in big data and real-time web applications. NoSQL systems are also referred to as "Not only SQL" to emphasize that they do in fact allow SQL-like query languages to be used.

When I run a Google search of "NoSQL DCIM" most of the results I see are pages with one word in an article and advertisements with the other.

By this point it is easy to stand out vs. other DCIM vendors and you can start a dialog with Facebook on what DCIM should do.

I could go on and on, but it gets more esoteric.  You get the basic ideas.  Once you get past the partnership the really hard part comes up to create something that Facebook wants to buy.

The Facebook DCIM whale that got away, Facebook builds its own DCIM solution

Some use the term Whale Hunting to describe going for the big sale, and I would expect that some had used this term going for a DCIM sale at Facebook.

If you don't like the Whale analogy.  Another one is the biggest wins are many times like the "belle of the ball" where companies are the most attractive for a sale.  

Whatever analogy you use the Whale or Belle these companies are smart and know what the market looks like and is used to turning away advances and not taking the bait on a hook.

Then Facebook sends this message out discussing DCIM at DCD SF.

The management tools used today are already a hodgepodge of DIY and third-party solutions. The DCIM solution Furlong hopes will emerge from the current effort will establish a line of communication between management tools on the server side and management tools on the data center side.

Facebook is stuck. With as important as DCIM is, it is not a high enough priority to dedicate the resources to solve.

At the same time, using software-engineer hours to build a solution from the ground up does not make business sense. “Our software developers are better utilized worrying about our infrastructure and worrying about product than they are worrying about data center space.”

You don't hear glowing reviews of DCIM SW from the Whales or Belles in the industry.  Does this mean DCIM is only good enough for the smaller less attractive companies?

Digital Realty has chosen to build its own DCIM which is part of why they'll discuss their solution.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center solutions, announced today that it launched EnVisionSM, a comprehensive data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solution.  EnVision provides increased visibility into data center operations, including the ability to analyze data in a manner that is digestible and actionable; a user interface with displays and reports that are tailored to data center operators; and access to historical data as well as predictive capabilities.

"Up until now, data has been collected, but it has not necessarily been easily accessed or arranged in an intuitive manner that is helpful to a data center operator," said David Schirmacher, senior vice president of portfolio operations at Digital Realty. "The goal in rolling out EnVision across our global portfolio is to give our customers a common database that is structured around the specific needs of data center operators and can therefore manage the millions of data points that are found in today's large-scale facilities."

DataCenterDynamics discusses this is not a threat.

DCIM vendors should not see this trend among hyper-scale operators as a threat, however, Ascierto says. Yes, their physical footprint does represent a sizable chunk of the addressable market, but the market is so immature, and the market penetration rate of DCIM is so low, there are plenty of other operators to go after, she says.

Not getting the big win may not be a threat, but it never feels good to miss the big sale that could be bragged about as the Whale or Belle of the Ball.

Digital Realty expresses need for Hierarchical Design in DCIM to organize the data

Before David Schirmacher joined Digital Realty trust we would regularly have chats that could easily last hours.  I don't get a chance to chat with David as much now that he is Sr VP of Data Center Operations, but we still connect in many ideas.  Digital Realty has a paper it released on DCIM.  And a couple of things reminded me how we think the same.

And David has a hierarchy which i would have drawn from the bottom up, but David has drawn from top down.

Here is more information from the press release.

Digital Realty Addresses Challenges of Establishing Successful DCIM Platform

 

White paper explores the challenges of DCIM platforms and provides a comparative outlook on Digital Realty’s newly launched DCIM solution 

 

San Francisco, CA – July 23, 2013 – Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center solutions, today announced the release of a white paper titled, “Real-Time Monitoring for Data Centers: Comprehensive DCIM Solution Creates Connectivity-Rich Environment.” The paper, authored by David Schirmacher, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Operations for Digital Realty, explores the challenges inherent in establishing a successful data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform and introduces EnVision, Digital Realty’s recently launched DCIM solution.

Historically, vendors have approached DCIM as a hardware problem by implementing specialized equipment in an attempt to achieve a real-time monitoring and management platform for the interdependent systems across IT and infrastructure. However, the challenge with today’s DCIM platforms isn’t with the hardware, but rather it’s with the data that’s being managed, monitored and analyzed. In short, today’s DCIM solutions need to provide a significantly more comprehensive view of all of the resources within a data center – from the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that form the backbone of a facility’s infrastructure to the servers and racks that compose the heart of the IT setup.

The paper explains how a data-driven, connected view of a data center enables data center operators to realize the capacity they need in order to help their firms effectively grow their businesses and to ensure their data centers are yielding optimal results. In particular, with EnVision, Digital Realty’s DCIM solution, the company’s customers gain increased visibility into data center operations, the ability to analyze data in a manner that is digestible and actionable, a user interface and data displays/reports that are tailored to data center operators, and access to historical as well as predictive data.

Interested in sharing some insights from the white paper with your Twitter followers? Check out our list of interesting facts pulled from the paper:

• #DCIM is an emerging form of #datacenter mngt that bridges gap between traditional facilities systems& #IT systems http://ow.ly/neWSD
• #DCIM solutions must allow users to view info about the #datacenter in a truly connected sense http://ow.ly/neWSD
• The issue at the core of the #DCIM puzzle is stranded data, per @drdatacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• The focus shifts from displaying data to managing data when looking at #DCIM from an operator’s perspectivehttp://ow.ly/neWSD
• “#DCIM is not a hardware problem, it is a data problem” per @drdatacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• A typical #datacenter, might have 10,000 data points which can turn into billions of #datapoints a year http://ow.ly/neWSD#DCIM
• A typical #datacenter, if it is fully instrumented, might have 5,000 or 10,000 #datapoints http://ow.ly/neWSD #DCIM
• @drdatacenters builds a comprehensive #DCIM solution with real-time monitoring for #datacenters http://ow.ly/neWSD
• Key to a comprehensive #DCIM solution is recognizing the breadth & diversity of the available informationhttp://ow.ly/neWSD
• “Real-Time Monitoring for #DataCenters: Comp #DCIM Solution Creates Connectivity-Rich Enviro http://ow.ly/neWSD via@drdatacenters

 

To view the full paper, click here: http://ow.ly/neWSD

Ah, figured out how DCIM asset deployment should work, do you see the Information Architecture

I am having fun expressing some of my views of DCIM.  One area I don't think I've heard anyone discuss is the Information Architecture of their DCIM solution.

What is Information Architecture?

Information architecture is a specialized skill set that interprets information and expresses distinctions between signs and systems of signs. More concretely, it involves the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that the intended audience can understand quickly, if not inherently, and then easily retrieve the information for which they are searching^{[2][page needed]}. The organization structure is usually hierarchical, but can have other structures, such as concentric or even chaotic^{[2][page needed]}. Typically this is required in activities such as library systems, content management systems,web development, user interactions, database development, computer programming, technical writing, enterprise architecture, and critical system software design. Information architecture originates, to some degree, in the library sciences. Many schools with library and information science departments teach information architecture.^[6]

In the context of information systems design, information architecture refers to the analysis and design of the data stored by information systems, concentrating on entities, their attributes, and their interrelationships. It refers to the modeling of data for an individual database and to the corporate data models that an enterprise uses to coordinate the definition of data in several (perhaps scores or hundreds) distinct databases. The "canonical data model" is applied to integration technologies as a definition for specific data passed between the systems of an enterprise. At a higher level of abstraction, it may also refer to the definition of data stores.

Why do you need an information architecture? For the same reason you need architects to design a building to make sure the end user purpose is met, but there is more to good architecture than does it work.  A good architecture has three qualities.

Three Principles of Good Architecture

The Roman architect Vitruvius in his treatise on architecture, De Architectura, asserted that there were three principles of good architecture:

• Firmatis (Durability) - It should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
• Utilitas (Utility) - It should be useful and function well for the people using it.
• Venustatis (Beauty) - It should delight people and raise their spirits.

Most would blow off the third principle.  How many users of DCIM delight in their time spent in the system and feel their spirits raised?  

If you don't think Beauty is important.  Than you don't get the way Apple products are designed.  Steve Jobs would be an example of a person who would believe in all three principles of good architecture.  How many executives buying DCIM want or believe in the three principles?  Not many.  On the other hand beauty is the experience people get from almost all luxury services - BMW, Porsche, etc.  So there is value in beauty.  

A great DCIM information architecture will be beautiful one of these days.

Three features of DCIM I would focus on - Ease of use, Ability to Scale, and Availability

I've worked on lots of complex software projects at Apple and Microsoft.  6 years ago I started working on data centers and before DCIM was a buzz word I worked on some projects that were the early forerunners of DCIM.  When I was doing this I had no desire to start a company or join a company that was building DCIM.  Why?  I just thought it would be too hard to get users to buy the right thing vs. buying what they thought they needed.

Here is CA says DCIM is.

Data center infrastructure management(DCIM) from CA Technologies provides a web-based centralized solution for monitoring power, cooling and environmentals across facilities and IT systems in the data center as well as managing the use of space and lifecycle of assets which make up the data center infrastructure. CA DCIM is capable of taking data from highly diverse devices and systems using SNMP or other protocols such as BACnet or Modbus. CA DCIM will also allow your organization to track assets within the data center and understand them in data center space using powerful 3D visualization. In addition, CA DCIM enables integration of data center infrastructure management with broader IT Management and business service provision.

This works for the executive sell and is fairly representative of what others say DCIM does.

Given I could build a DCIM solution, I look at it differently.

First and most important is the DCIM easy to use.  Do the operators welcome the system or do they see it as another system they need to input data to, login, and add to their frustration.  Show me a DCIM system that makes the task of operations easier, then it would get my interest.  The above is like a description of an ERP system.  How many of you want to go through the same pains of an ERP deployment in your data center?

Second, is the system built on a state of the art high performance platform that will scale and respond quickly.  If the system can handle 1,000-10,000s of transactions a second, then it can scale and under every day use should perform quickly.  It is amazing when you look under the covers and you see system design. Look to see whether it will scale.

Third is the system highly available.  Are there three nodes working to keep the service up and running?  Two nodes might work.  Three nodes or more means the failure of the DCIM service is lower what you are measuring.  Trying to operate a data center when the DCIM tool is down can be done, but many times means lots of data entry is needed later.  Who wants that.  If you see only one node in the system, then run.

There are many features of a DCIM system.  If it is not easy to use, scales, and highly available, then I would walk away and continue your search.