Data centers are critical infrastructure for businesses in a wide variety of industries, and managing them comes with many challenges. The following five obstacles can make or break success in data center management. 

1. Preventing Downtime

Data center downtime is every manager’s nightmare. While equipment is down, servers aren’t doing their jobs and people who need to access the information they contain can’t do so. Preventing downtime is one of the top reasons companies might work with a data center consulting firm.

2. Maximizing Utilization

There’s only so much power, cooling capability and space to go around in a data center, and managers must learn how to improve utilization of each resource. Doing so can be highly complicated, so use of a machine learning model may be the most effective way to make use of available resources.

3. Recording Operating Expenses 

A major goal of data center management is to reduce operating expenses, so being able to properly record the data on performance in relation to cost is a must. There are many software platforms that feature automatic data reporting that makes it easier to establish the value of a data center to a company.

4. Reducing Energy Expenditure

The nature of data centers means they consume immense amounts of energy by default. Altering certain configurations and usage patterns can help managers reduce the amount of electricity wasted, lowering carbon footprint in addition to reducing cost.

5. Maximizing Staff Potential

For a data center to work efficiently, employees need to be well-trained and used to their greatest potential. This often means managers have to retool and streamline workflows so staff aren’t wasting time finding out what their next assignment is. Another smart option is to implement automation tools that reduce the time employees spend doing menial tasks like manually logging hours or specific activities.  

Effectively managing a data center is no simple task, so consider working with a consulting firm if you are serious about improving performance and return on investment.