By Dick Stark

Last week I talked to a large DOD customer where we have just started year two of our data center infrastructure management (DCIM) Nlyte contract. I’m happy to report we are making excellent progress and should soon have an Authority to Operate (ATO) the Nlyte DCIM solution What’s exciting is that Nlyte (and RightStar) offer a way for government agencies like this one to modernize their data centers and comply with the new Federal DCOI mandate.

DCOI, or Federal Data Center Optimization Initiative, requires government agencies to consolidate Federal data centers and increase interagency shared services such as the cloud. DCOI also requires that Agencies meet targets for energy metering, effective power use, virtualization, automated monitoring, and utilization of both servers and facility floor space. According to the mandate, “Agencies shall replace manual collections and reporting of systems, software, and hardware inventory housed within data centers with automated monitoring, inventory, and management tools, by the end of fiscal year 2020.”

Although DCOI is a mandate, the not-so-good news is that little progress has been made and as a result, the government extended the compliance deadline from 2018 to the end of fiscal year 2020. MeriTalk, a Federal think tank recently surveyed 150 data center decision makers and discovered that fewer than one fifth were on track to meet the original September 2018 goals.

Typical Data Center Floor Plan with Nlyte:

The really good news is that there are pockets of excellence and success at many agencies already, and we can guide others that are just starting. This contract will be a model for other agencies, especially the DOD which is just starting to modernize. Another reason to be optimistic about DCOI is the recently passed Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act which lays a foundation for IT modernization across the government. Even better, MGT, signed into law on December 12, creates working capital funds for IT projects at Federal Agencies. What’s interesting is that MGT is not designed to just spend money on IT modernization projects, but to find ways to accrue savings from these projects. A DCIM project, with more accurate and efficient automated monitoring tools, is a perfect solution.

According to the MeriTalk report, 73% of those surveyed say the drive to close, consolidate, and optimize data centers is a necessary precursor to the larger goal of IT modernization. Optimization is an important priority. While auto-discovery tools like BMC Discovery track an organization’s networked IT assets, Nlyte provides DCIM solutions for management of the data center’s physical assets and infrastructure. An Nlyte/Remedy integrated solution provides detailed data on the physical location of each asset in the data center and maps the relationships between these assets as it applies to applications, ownership, service support, cable connections and energy use. This is an exciting opportunity for Nlyte and RightStar to help government agencies meet the DCOI mandate and the larger goal of IT modernization.