Abstract:
The present disclosure relates to methods for forming a data center infrastructure management (DOM) system. In one implementation the method may involve using a first portion of the DCIM system, including at least one DCIM application, as a cloud-based system. A second portion of the DCIM system may be used at a remote facility, the second portion making use of a hardware component. The second portion of the DCIM system may be used to obtain information from at least one device at the remote facility. A wide area network may be used to communicate the obtained information from the second portion to the first portion.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a PCT International Application that claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Serial No. 61/676,374, filed on Jul. 27, 2012. The entire disclosure of the above-referenced provisional patent application is incorporated herein by reference. 
       TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present application is directed to data center infrastructure management (DCIM) systems and methods, and more particularly to a DCIM system having one or more of its hardware and or software components based in the cloud and available as a “service” to user. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. 
         [0004]    Cloud computing is presently growing rapidly around the world. By “cloud” computing, it is meant making a computing service available remotely as a service rather, over a wide area network, for example over the Internet. Thus, with cloud computing, a user will remotely access the computing and/or software applications that he/she requires to use, via a WAN or the Internet, rather than making use of computer with the required software running thereon at his/her location. 
         [0005]    Previously developed data center infrastructure management (DCIM) systems, however, have typically relied on the user having the needed computing and software resources available at the user&#39;s site. Typically the user would be required to purchase, or at least lease, the required DCIM equipment. Obviously, this can represent a significant expense. Furthermore, if the user anticipates significant growth, then user may be in a position of having to purchase more DCIM assets (i.e., servers, memory, processors, monitoring software applications, etc.) than what may be needed initially, with the understanding that the excess DCIM capability will eventually be taken up as the data center expands. 
         [0006]    Accordingly, it would be highly advantageous if one or more DCIM hardware and software products could be offered in the cloud to provide physical hardware and software products required by the user in managing and/or monitoring the user&#39;s data center products. In this manner the user could purchase or lease only those computing/monitoring services that are needed, and could easily purchase additional computing/monitoring services as the user&#39;s data center expands in size. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    In one aspect the present disclosure relates to a method for forming a data center infrastructure management management (DCIM) system. The method may involve using a first portion of the DCIM system, including at least one DCIM application, as a cloud-based system. A second portion of the DCIM system may be used at a remote facility, the second portion making use of a hardware component. The second portion of the DCIM system may be used to obtain information from at least one device at the remote facility. A wide area network may be used to communicate the obtained information from the second portion to the first portion. 
         [0008]    In another aspect the present disclosure relates to a method for forming a data center infrastructure management management (DCIM) system. The method may comprise using a first portion of the DCIM system as a cloud-based system. A second portion of the DCIM system may be used at a remote facility, the second portion including a hardware component forming at least one of a universal management gateway (UMG) for receiving information in serial form from at least one external device; a server for receiving information in the form of internet protocol (IP)_packets; and a facilities appliance for receiving information in one of serial form or IP packet form. The hardware component of the second portion of the DCIM system may be used to obtain the information from at least one device at the remote facility. A wide area network may be used to communicate the obtained information from the second portion to the first portion. 
         [0009]    In still another aspect the present disclosure relates a method for forming a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system. The method may comprise using multiple instances of a first portion of the DCIM system as a cloud-based system. A second portion of the DCIM system may be used at a remote facility, the second portion including a hardware component. The second portion of the DCIM system may be used to obtain information from at least one device at the remote facility. A wide area network may be used to communicate the obtained information from the second portion to the first portion. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  shows a “hybrid” DCIM system in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure in which a portion of the DCIM system is made available in the cloud, for use as a service, by a user at a remote facility, and where the remote facility includes a component of the DCIM system, in this example a universal management gateway (UMG) device, running an MSS engine thereon; 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  shows another embodiment of a hybrid DCIM system in which a portion of the DCIM system is made available as a service in the cloud, and an MSS engine of the DCIM system is located on a server at the user&#39;s remote facility; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  shows another embodiment of a DCIM system in which the DCIM system is made available in the cloud, and further where a virtual MSS engine is established on a virtual host accessible in the cloud; 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  shows another embodiment of a DCIM system in which a virtual MSS engine is running on a virtual host, where the virtual host and its related DCIM system is in the cloud, and further where the remote facility makes use of a facilities appliance to communicate with both serial and IP devices; 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  shows another embodiment of a hybrid DCIM system in which the facilities appliance of  FIG. 4  is used with a server at the remote facility, and where the server is running an MSS engine, and where the remaining components of the DCIM system are in the cloud; 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  shows another hybrid implementation of a DCIM system where the DCIM system is employed in a single instance in the cloud, to serve a single tenant; 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  shows another hybrid implementation of a DCIM system where multi-instances of the DCIM system are created to handle separate UMGs; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  shows a graph that illustrates how customization and infrastructure needs change depending on whether the DCIM system is configured for single instance or multi-instance use, as well as when the DCIM system is handling single tenant or multi-tenant usage. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0019]    Referring to  FIG. 56 , an embodiment of a data center infrastructure management (“DCIM”) system  1000  is shown which makes use of a portion  1002  of the DCIM system  1000  made available in the cloud. The embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 1  may also be viewed as a “hybrid solution”, where the portion  1002  of the DCIM system  1000  is employed in the cloud, and a portion (i.e., a Universal Management Gateway  1004 ) is employed at a remote physical facility. A Client is indicated at the remote facility (labeled “Remote Facility  1 ”). The Client can be considered as being a user that is part of a Tenant. A Tenant may be virtually any type of entity, such as an independent company, or may be a division of a company having a plurality of divisions, or a Tenant may simply be one or more individual clients (i.e., users). The Client may make use of one or more of any form of computing device(s), for example one or more desktop computers, laptop computers, terminals, tablets or even smartphones, or combinations thereof. And while the Client is shown in  FIGS. 1-5  located within each of the Remote Facilities, it will be appreciated that the Client could just as readily be accessing the Remote Facility from some other remote location via a wide area connection. 
         [0020]    Referring further to  FIG. 1 , the DCIM system  1002  may include the Universal Management Gateway (UMG)  1004 , which may be a remote access appliance such as a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) remote access appliance. The UMG  1004  may have a manageability subsystem (“MSS”) Engine  1005  (i.e., software module) for collecting data from various components being monitored. The operation of the MSS Engine  1005  is also described in U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/676,374, filed on Jul. 27, 2012, which has been incorporated by reference into the present disclosure. At Remote Facility  1  the UMG  1004  enables data analysis and aggregation of data collected from various components at Remote Facility  1 . The UMG  1004  provides other highly useful capabilities such as pushing data up to other various components of the DCIM  1002  system, such as an MSS services subsystem (not shown but described in U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/676,374 referenced above) which may be located in the cloud. The MSS Engine  1005  may perform data point aggregation, analysis and may also generate event notifications when predetermined conditions have been met (e.g., temperature of a room has been exceeded for a predetermined time threshold). The MSS engine  1005  may then transmit aggregated data point information back to the DCIM system  1002  using a network  1024  connection (i.e., WAN or Internet). 
         [0021]    The DCIM system  1002  may include one or more DCIM applications  1006  for managing or working with various components at Remote Facility  1 . At Remote Facility  1  the UMG  1004  may be coupled to both a network switch  1008  as well as one or more serial devices  1010 ,  1012  and  1014 , and thus may be able to receive and transmit IP packets to and from the network switch  1008 , as well as to communicate serial data to the serial devices  1010 - 1014  or to receive serial data from the serial devices  1010 - 1014 . The serial devices  1010 - 1014  may be any types of serial devices, for example temperature sensing devices, humidity sensing devices, voltage monitoring devices, etc., or any type of computing device or peripheral that communicates via a serial protocol. The network switch  1008  may also be in communication with a wide variety of other devices such as, without limitation, a building management system  1016 , a data storage device  1018 , a fire suppression system  1020 , a Power Distribution Unit (PDU)  1022  and the network  1024  (wide area network or the Internet). Virtually any type of component that may communicate with the network switch  1008  could potentially be included, and the components  1016 - 1022  are only meant as non-limiting examples of the various types of devices that could be in communication with the network switch  1008 . The embodiment shown in  FIG. 1  may potentially provide a significant cost savings to the operator of Remote Facility  1  by eliminating the need to provide a full DCIM system at Remote Facility  1 . Instead, just the UMG  1004  and the MSS engine  1005  are provided at Remote Facility  1 , and the DCIM system  1002  may provide only those DCIM services that are required and requested by the operator of Remote Facility  1 . 
         [0022]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , another hybrid system  2000  is shown in which a cloud based DCIM system  2002  forms a “facility as a service”. The system  2000  is shown in communication with a Remote Facility  2  which includes several components identical to those described in connection with Remote Facility  1 . Those identical components are denoted by the same reference numbers used with the description of Remote Facility  1  but increased by  1000 . The DCIM system  2002  may include one or more DCIM applications  2006 . However, Remote Facility  2  includes a server  2005  in place of the UMG  1004  of  FIG. 1 . The server  2005  may include an MSS engine  2005   a  forming a software component for collecting and analyzing data, in this example IP packets, received from a network switch  2008 . The network switch  2008  may be in communication with a wide area network (WAN)  2024  that enables the network switch  2008  to access the cloud-based DCIM system  2002 . The network switch  2008  may also be in communication with a building management system  2016 , a data storage device  2018 , a fire suppression system  2020  and a PDU  2022 . Client  2  may access the cloud-based DCIM  2002  via the network switch  2008  and network  2024 . System  2000  of  FIG. 2  thus also forms a “hybrid” solution because a portion of the DCIM system  2002  (i.e., MSS engine  2005   a ) is located at Remote Facility  2 , while the remainder of the DCIM system  2002  is cloud-based and available as a service to Client  2 . 
         [0023]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , another system  3000  is shown where an entire DCIM system  3002  is cloud-based and used as a “service” by Client  3 , and further where a portion of the DCIM system, an MSS engine  3005 , is provided as a “virtual” component on a virtual host computer  3007 . Again, in this embodiment components in common with those explained in  FIG. 1  will be denoted with reference numbers increased by  2000 . The DCIM system  3002  may include one or more DCIM applications  3006  that may be accessed “as a service” by Client  3  from Remote Facility  3 . The Remote Facility  3  may have a network switch  3008  in communication with a building management system  3016 , a data storage device  3018  such as a database, a fire suppression system  3020  and a PDU  3022 . Data collected from components  3016 ,  3018 ,  3020  and  3022  may be communicated via network  3024  to the cloud-based DCIM  3002 . The virtual MSS engine  3005  may perform monitoring and analysis operations on the collected data , and one or more of the DCIM applications  3006  may be used to report various events, alarms or conditions concerning the operation of the components at Remote Facility  3  back to Client  3 . This embodiment may also represent a significant cost savings for the operation of Remote Facility  3  because only those data center monitoring/analysis operations required by the operator of Remote Facility  3  may be used as a cloud-based service. Plus, the MSS engine is “virtualized”, and thus provided as a cloud-based service to the operator of Remote Facility  3 , which eliminates the need to provide it as a hardware or software item at Remote Facility  3 . Thus, the operator of Remote Facility  3  in this example would not need to purchase any hardware components relating to the DCIM system  3002 ; instead the DCIM hardware and software is fully provided as a service in the cloud. 
         [0024]    Turning now to  FIG. 4 , still another example of a system  4000  is illustrated in which a DCIM system  4002  is provided in the cloud, but where a Remote Facility  4  includes a facilities appliance  4009  in place of a network switch. The facilities appliance  4009  may provide communication capabilities with both serial devices, such as serial devices  4012  and  4014 , as well as those devices that communicate by sending and/or receiving IP packets. Such components communicating via IP packets may be a building management system  4016 , a data storage device  4018 , a fire suppression system  4020 , a PDU  4022 , and a CRAC (computer controlled air conditioning) unit  4026 . The facilities appliance  4009  may communicate with the cloud-based DCIM  4002  via a network  4024 . The cloud-based DCIM  4002  may include a virtual host computer  4007  running a virtual MSS engine  4005 . The cloud-based DCIM applications  4006  may be accessed by Client  4  via the network  4024  as needed. 
         [0025]      FIG. 5  shows still another example of a system  5000  in which a cloud-based DCIM system  5002  functions as a service for Client  5  at a Remote Facility  5 . In this example a server  5005  having a software MSS engine  5005   a  communicates with a facilities appliance  5009 . The facilities appliance  5009  can communicate with both serial protocol and IP protocol devices. The facilities appliance  5009  communicates with the cloud-based DCIM system  5002  via a network  5024 . In this example a serial device  5012 , a building management system  5016 , a fire suppression system  5020 , a data storage device  5018 , a PDU  5022  and a CRAC unit  5026  are all in communication with the facilities appliance  5009 . As a variation of this implementation, a virtual host computer could instead be implemented at Remote Facility  5  with an instance of a virtual MSS engine running thereon. 
         [0026]    In summary, providing all or a major portion of a DCIM system in the cloud enables a substantial portion, or possibly even all, of the DCIM hardware and software components to be offered as a “service” to customers. This better enables a user to use only the data center infrastructure management services that are needed for the user&#39;s data center at a given time, but still allows the user to easily accommodate new data center equipment as same is added to the user&#39;s data center by increasing the data center infrastructure management capabilities offered in the cloud-based DCIM system. Thus, for example, if the Remote Facility  1  of  FIG. 1  was to grow to include double the data center equipment shown in  FIG. 1 , then the user could easily accommodate such growth by using a plurality of MSS Engines  1005  running on one or more UMGs  1004 . Likewise, offering all or a portion of the DCIM system as a service allows users to make use of only those cloud-based data center management services that are needed at the present time, while still providing the opportunity to scale up or down the used services as their data center management needs change. 
         [0027]    Referring now to  FIGS. 6-8 , various embodiments of a hybrid s DCIM system, with at least a portion of the DCIM system being located in the cloud, are illustrated. Referring specifically to  FIG. 6 , a DCIM system  6000  is shown where a single instance, single tenant DCIM  6002  is provided. This embodiment makes use of a plurality of UMGs  6004   a,    6004   b  and  6004   c  at a remote location  6006 . Each UMG  6004   a,    6004   b  and  6004   c  may be to communicating with a plurality of independent devices  6008 . A plurality of users  6010   a,    6010   b  and  6010   c  may be accessing the DCIM  6002  over a wide area network  6010 . Each of the user&#39;s  6010   a,    6010   b  and  6010   c  will essentially be using the DCIM  6002  “as a service”, and may be using the DCIM  6002  to obtain information from one or more of the UMGs  6004   a - 6004   c.    
         [0028]      FIG. 7  illustrates a system  7000  in which a cloud-based DCIM system  7002  has a plurality of instances  7002   a,    7002   b  and  7002   c  created. The DCIM instances  7002   a,    7002   b  and  7002   c  in this example independently handle communications with a corresponding plurality of UMGs  7004   a,    7004   b  and  7004   c,  respectively. Users  7006   a,    7006   b  and  7006   c  each communicate with the DCIM system  7002  via a wide area network  7008 . The UMGs  7004   a,    7004   b  and  7004   c  are each handling communications with a plurality of devices  7010 . The instances  7002   a,    7002   b  and  7002   c  of the DCIM system  7002  essentially operate as separate DCIM “software systems”. Each of the users  7006   a,    7006   b  and  7006   c  may be using separate ones of the DCIM instances  7002   a,    7002   b  and  7002   c  to communicate or obtain information from any one or more of the UMGs  7004 . 
         [0029]      FIG. 8  graphically illustrates how a degree of customization and infrastructure requirements are affected by configuring the DCIM system  6002  or  7002  for single instance or multi-instance usage. From  FIG. 8  it can also be seen how resources are shared depending on whether a single tenant or a multi-tenant configuration is in use. 
         [0030]    While various embodiments have been described, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications or variations which might be made without departing from the present disclosure. The examples illustrate the various embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Therefore, the description and claims should be interpreted liberally with only such limitation as is necessary in view of the pertinent prior art.