Raritan has announced that its DCIM connector for ServiceNow is generally available. Raritan is a ServiceNow Integration Partner.
“Data centers use DCIM, a subset of IT service management (ITSM), to manage their physical infrastructures, including assets, environment, power and network connections,” says James Cerwinski, director of software at Raritan. “Although DCIM and ITSM may be used independently, there is real value in tying the management of the physical data center to the general IT management framework. By integrating the two, organizations can manage the workflow involved in changing servers and infrastructure elements more effectively, and gain more insight on IT services.”
Raritan’s bi-directional interface enables ServiceNow “change requests” to flow seamlessly into Raritan’s DCIM change management and work order processes. As a result, users can issue change requests from ServiceNow and monitor the status of these requests — equipment adds and moves — from start to completion. The data center team has the ability to accept, modify, ask for clarification or reject “change requests”. Then issue a detailed work order with a rack elevation image, device specifications, power and network connection details, and placement information to ensure accurate installation by the data center operations technician. This increases the efficiency and accuracy of the change process while ensuring a full electronic audit trail of all activity.
According to Gartner analysts April Adams and Federico De Silva, one of the “three areas where DCIM vendors will need to improve their offerings in response to, and anticipation of, evolving user needs in order to remain competitive is Enhanced Workflow Capabilities. Currently considered a nice-to-have feature, the ability to integrate a DCIM solution with existing change management and incident management systems will soon be a requirement on the checklist with customers that want to get the full value from their DCIM solution. Here, we look for the ability to generate a work order that indicates the rack and rack position where a device is to be installed, as well as what it will be connected to (such as power, LAN and cables) and, preferably, with clear installation instructions that can be assigned and automatically sent to a technician from within the software.”
As an open web-based solution, Raritan DCIM’s workflow capabilities and connectors integrate well with ITSM software and operational support elements, such as CMDB, Service Desk, change-ticketing systems, and workflow engines. By sharing information on processes and infrastructure, data centers gain more visibility into resources and improve workflow processes.
