Data center managers are tasked with increasing energy efficiency to improve data center sustainability and save money. One of the best practices to increase data center energy efficiency is to implement data center containment. Data center containment is a highly effective way of managing airflow, increasing efficiency, and reducing wasteful energy costs. It is the separation of cold supply air from cooling equipment from the hot exhaust air from IT equipment.

Automating data center tasks to increase operational efficiency is a primary goal for most data center professionals, but it can be a struggle. Professionals who have used legacy data center management tools like first-generation Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software, Excel, and Visio can attest to the fact that they are time-consuming, difficult to maintain, and inaccurate.

Data center managers are increasingly looking for ways to automate tasks to save time and improve data accuracy. In our recent Automation Workshop webinar, data center experts from eBay, MacStadium, and the University of Chicago shared their real-world use cases and insights on how they use APIs and integration to drive automation in their data centers.

Whether you are downsizing your infrastructure within a single room or eliminating half of your data center sites, a data center consolidation is a complex, risk-prone project. Fortunately, you can mitigate many of the mistakes and unwelcome surprises that even the most experienced data center professionals find derailing their project and instead enjoy the many advantages of a data center consolidation.

Today, it’s more important than ever to secure your critical infrastructure. You just have to look at some of the large cyberattacks that occurred this year to understand why. In 2020, 80.7% of organizations suffered at least one successful cyberattack, and 35.2% suffered six or more. You must follow best practices to avoid being one of these victims.