A Brief Analysis of Asset Positioning Services in Data Centers and Their Roles

What is Data Center?

A data center is a physical facility designed for the centralized storage, processing, and management of computer systems and related components. It typically includes a large number of servers, network devices, storage equipment, and associated infrastructure such as power and cooling systems. The primary objective of a data center is to provide reliable computing and storage resources to support various information technology services and business requirements.

With the continuous expansion of data center scale and the increasing number of devices, equipment tracking and management have become increasingly challenging. Low utilization of cabinet space, rising operational costs, inefficient management processes, and issues related to low efficiency and security compliance risks all make efficient and automated IT asset management a primary requirement for the digital management of data centers.

What is asset positioning service？

Asset positioning service is a crucial part within the DCIM submarket. While discovery services can be used to determine the logical location of devices on the network, there has not been a straightforward method to accurately determine the physical location of assets in the data center. Most data centers still rely on manual audits and documentation to determine the installation location of data center assets.

Today, data center IT asset positioning technology can identify the physical location of assets at the "U-position" level, and the technology has matured through continuous iterations.

U-positioning technology has undergone three developmental stages: initially, there were wired electronic tags (EIC tags) based on 1-wire technology, followed by wireless electronic tags based on RFID technology, and then MC-RFID magnetic positioning RFID technology.

EIC technology belongs to early-stage contact-based electronic tag positioning technology. This positioning technology has poor environmental adaptability, a short lifespan, and high maintenance costs. Due to significant drawbacks, it was essentially replaced by RFID technology in the early 21st century. RFID's wireless electronic tags are the current mainstream technology in the Internet of Things (IoT), with applications spanning almost everywhere and a robust industry chain. However, when used for U-positioning scenarios, RFID technology faces challenges such as inaccurate positioning precision and low data accuracy. Therefore, U-positioning products based on these two technologies fall far short of meeting users' business needs.

In recent years, an innovative invention, MC-RFID technology (an improved RFID technology), has thoroughly addressed the issue of inaccurate positioning in RFID technology, completely resolving the shortcomings of the first two types of technologies. The distinctive features of MC-RFID technology products include 100% positioning accuracy throughout the entire lifecycle, high reliability with maintenance-free operation, and low cost. Additionally, the RFID industry chain is robust and sustainable. U-position IoT products based on MC-RFID technology have already been deployed and launched in some large, medium, and small-scale data centers, receiving high recognition from customers.

The value of asset positioning services is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Real-time Discovery: Real-time discovery of the physical location of assets.

Asset Changes: Real-time monitoring asset onrack and offrack and automatedly update the changes.

Asset Reconciliation: Real-time inventory ensuring reconciliation with records.

Capacity Utilization Management: Strategic planning of equipment onrack and offrack to enhance U-position utilization.

Key Metrics: 99.99% accuracy of data over the entire 10-year lifecycle.

Summary

Asset positioning services play a crucial role in data centers. They provide operational personnel with real-time, accurate, and efficient monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities, greatly enhancing operational efficiency and quality. This ensures that IT assets are safer and compliant.