automated asset tracking in the data center: how ibm reduced the time/cost of tracking data center...

© Copyright 2013 RF Code Inc.

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Automated Asset Tracking in the Data Center: How IBM Reduced the Time/Cost of Tracking

Data Center Assets September 18, 2013

© Copyright 2013 RF Code Inc. All Rights Reserved

Slide 2

Manual Asset Tracking Challenges

High cost of manually inventorying asset information •  Time •  Staff •  Painful to 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


Slide 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


Slide 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


Slide 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.


Slide 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

© Copyright 2013 RF Code Inc.

All Rights Reserved

Speaker: Brent Kiger Global RFID Technical Solutions Architect, IBM Integrated Supply Chain Asset Management Services

IBM: Smarter IT Asset Management


Slide 8

We used it first… •  Issues we faced:

§  Expensive physical inventory costs §  Long, costly reconciliations §  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

w  Included all asset types – mainframes, blade servers, disk, and tape storage

§  Monitored Storage/Staging room §  Monitored Equipment entrance §  Monitored ManTrap entrance

Smarter IT Asset Management Pilot


Slide 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.


Slide 10

Smarter IT Asset Management Architecture

Readers

Rack Locators

Asset Manager

Asset/Sensor Tags

Inputs of new assets

Alerts

Zone Manager

Maximo

ITM

DCIM


Slide 11

Lessons Learned

•  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% •  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


Slide 12

IBM’s Next Steps

•  2011 – 5 sites in US and Europe §  40,000 assets §  200 temperature and humidity and 2 differential air pressure

sensors

•  2012 – 10 sites in US, Europe, and Latin America §  Additional 30,000 assets

•  2013 – 10-12 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


Slide 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


Slide 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.


Slide 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


Slide 16

Q&A

Questions?


Slide 17

Contact Information

•  Chris Gaskins, RF Code [email protected]

•  Brent Kiger, IBM [email protected]

Thank you for joining us!

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