Will your data center make the Naughty or Nice list this year?

BRISTOL, UK: Whether the IT staff more likely to say "Ho Ho Ho!" or "Bah Humbug!" when it comes to data center audits and asset management in an organization, often depends on the audit process and type of data center asset management (DCAM) system in place.

John Consoli, Executive VP of Asset Vue, asks: "Does your data center staff see you as a benevolent Kris Kringle with a bag filled with tech marvels to help them do their jobs or an Ebenezer Scrooge keeping them working late and on weekends to complete last minute audits?"

Asset Vue is a provider of RFID based asset management and data center management solutions. Consoli offers a few hints as to whether a data center manager and team may find their data center makes the Naughty or Nice list this year.

Here are a few behaviors data center professionals should consider when it comes to data center audits and data center asset management best practices:

Naughty List

Failing to tag and track assets as they enter the data center.

Failing to maintain an up-to-date database of assets and upgrades.

Failing to upgrade assets that because they can't be easily located in the data center.

Failing to document moves, adds and changes (MACs) in the data center.

Failing to locate data center zombies (servers and other equipment kept running, even though it has been replaced by newer equipment)

Nice List

Being able to answer questions about data center assets in real time.

Reducing data center operating costs through proper inventory management.

Completing audits accurately, on time and on budget.

Getting the data center staff home for the holidays.

Using RFID tags, scanners and an asset database to tag and track assets in the data center.

Consoli concludes: "If you check off more items from the second list, you're probably running your data center with a proper data center asset management system. If you've checked off more items from the first list, you might want to do some holiday shopping and planning to improve data center audits and asset management for next year."