Federal agencies are challenged most with the development of a complete data center inventory and consolidation plan in their attempts to meet the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), according to a July 2011 report submitted by the General Accounting Office (GAO) to Congress.
Of the 24 agencies studied by GAO, 14 did not provide a complete listing of data centers and 15 did not list all of their software assets. “Until these inventories and plans are complete, agencies may not be able to implement their consolidation activities and realize expected cost savings,” the report stated.
This challenge is where
Hercules can truly help. Exclusively utilized within the partnership of Knight Point Systems and ThunderCat Technology, this software tool expedites the process for complete visibility into all of an agency's data center investments.
With Hercules, we will:
Deliverables include:
- Business analysis report
- Cost analysis report
- Business recommendation report
Without a current and detailed understanding of all of your data centers and each data center asset, it is impossible to ensure optimal performance and determine whether data centers are redundant or not and which assets should be upgraded or discontinued. Moreover, data centers are constantly changing—and without a way to keep complete tabs on their contents, performance and efficiency will inevitably slip even further.
Active Asset Management, part of the Hercules suite, creates a complete picture of the data center, providing you with a clear line of sight into your infrastructure and the ability to seamlessly and transparently manage your data center.
First, though, we take the time to discover your hardware and software assets in the only way that guarantees 100 percent success—by manually walking the data center, visiting every rack and writing down every server, serial number and model number. We do the same thing on the software side, noting every piece of software, including versions and where they reside.
The Hercules system is preloaded with manufacturer specifications for every piece of hardware. Once we complete hardware discovery, we can easily tell you what your power requirements are by rack, data center and even each building.
With this information, an agency will fully understand what IT assets it has—and which of those assets is actually a benefit to—or a drag on—its IT performance. With this information in hand, agencies can readily replace outdated and inefficient equipment and entire data centers, prevent the addition of redundant equipment and utilize virtualization and cloud solutions to their fullest extent.