Why I chose Sunbird DCIM

Pros

I like it because of its ease of use, good features, great support and help if needed. Easy to update and are frequently updated.

Cons

Most of the problems I had is mostly on my side, i.e I am not familiar with terms, technical lingo and mindset. So when for instance filling in information is a bit tedious but it is getting easier.

SunBird - The best feature rich DCIM product in the Market Place

The overall experience has been a bit overwhelming to start, with all the feature rich software has to offer, but with a good professional services engagement from Sunbird they were quickly able to break it all down into bit size chunks to understand and on free online training was extremely helpful when we got stuck with a curtain function.

Pros

The software provides a rich end to end functional journey of creating a DC room, adding the power train, then the racks and finally the devices into those racks. In the process of doing this you get a visualization view and an asset list plus how it all logically & physically connects together. Plus great out of the box dashboards.

Cons

None from a product perspective, but it does require you to understand all the layers within your data Centre and the equipment makes and models plus specifications.

Reasons to use DCIM

Existing data center structure was modeled exactly the same. In this way, planning can be done on a cabinet basis. Since cabling can be done, we can see which switch or router any device is connected to from any port. Apart from these, you can manage your inventory from here, thanks to the new warehouse system.

Pros

The application interface is very simple to use. Thanks to the constantly updated device list, all devices can be added and placed in their places in the cabinet. Apart from these, the datacenter structure can be displayed in 3d. In this way, capacity planning can be done on cabinet basis.

Cons

Sometimes problems can occur when removing cable connections.

PowerIQ is admin's best friend, dcTrack is best to comfort revisors and auditors

(x) Support is over-average (x) new releases have a high quality, we always wait a few month until implementing a new release and in the last two years we never had an issue after a release upgrade

Pros

New hardware devices are ready be monitored in seconds. Management of hundreds of hardware devices such PDUs and sensors lost it's complexity. PowerIQ superseded our Nagios Installation for all hardware-related devices. It becomes more and more our primary trap host.

Cons

Compared to PowerIQ setup of dcTrack is complex. Integration of PowerIQ an dcTrack could be easier to use. (License) Price for integration of USVs into PowerIQ is definitely to high, as a result we do not monitore our several USVs via PowerIQ

Still implementing but good process so far

Pros

Visualizations look great. The constant updating of model library helps to keep things accurate when adding new assets. Monitoring can be granular which gives the user better flexibility to use the functionality how they want it to be used. Software is very easy once it is used on a daily basis. Free weekly training is also helpful

Cons

Some of the better features appear to be available in newer builds. Newer builds require more testing before they can even be implemented. We get stuck using the outdated version with fear that the new one won't work well with out environment. Seems like the older versions have less and less support as the newer versions are released which is understandable. Charging for rack licenses for simple things like cable ladders to be represented in maps.