Energy management firm Schneider Electric has released a new version of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software, StruxureWare Data Center Operation v7.2 that detects underused and comatose servers, enabling the optimisation of IT equipment within the data centre.

Schneider’s updated Operation platform features include an IT Power Control, powered by Intel Data Center Manager (DCM) and the inclusion of the Cisco UCS Manager Plug-in.

IT Power Control, powered by Intel DCM provides real-time, server-level data on power and thermal conditions within the data centre.

This allows StruxureWare Data Center Operation v7.2 to deliver power and thermal consumption information to data centre managers.

The Cisco UCS Manager Plug-in allows customers to set the power cap for their racks with the knowledge of real-time physical capacity constraints, optimising the usage of the physical infrastructure and reducing over-provisioning to enhance customer’s data centres.

Operation platform v7.2 includes IT power and utilisation monitoring determines the business usefulness for all IT assets, helps eliminate underutilised servers and maximise its capacity at the rack, row and room levels.

It also includes server usage chargeback that enables businesses to capture and assign IT costs to individual departments for accurate billing support down to the physical or virtual server level, while the IT asset auto-discovery saves time and increases accuracy of managed asset inventory.

Auto-association automatically associates discovered IT devices with the inventory, while IT asset monitoring continually discovers and monitors IT components through standard protocols for accurate and current inventory management.

StruxureWare Data Center Operation v7.2 includes a genome library that enables the software to determine power consumption without the aid of hardware sensors. Reporting capabilities provides reporting on underutilised servers, top power consumers and KPI data.

Schneider Electric Solution Software vice president Soeren Brogaard Jensen said StruxureWare Data Center Operation version 7.2 provides the information for making key decisions on how to run data centres more efficiently.

"The platform provides data center managers with the ability to operate, monitor, analyze and optimize the energy usage of a data center all the way down to the server and CPU levels, gaining significant CapEX and OpEx savings and extending the data center life cycle in the process," Jensen said.