NORLINX Product Overview
Just as every DCIM provider is not the same, not all DCIM products are the same either.
In the year 2000, NORLINX launched Global Site Management (GSM), one of the first DCIM software products in the data center industry. Since then, NORLINX has been committed to providing our users with DCIM solutions that streamline the day-to-day management of their data center operation.
One of the cornerstones of GSM is functional simplicity, as every command in our software can be issued and executed via left or right click, or drag and drop. Unique to other DCIM providers, GSM utilizes Microsoft Visio as our GUI for floor plan management, asset management and capacity planning. This familiar and powerful tool helps minimize DCIM learning curves, helps with user adoption and gives users the information they need in reliable fashion.
Often, we hear DCIM users comparing GSM to alternative solutions, stating, "GSM is real. It provides real, meaningful data." No vaporware here. While we do not claim to be the best at every component of DCIM, we are confident in our ability to provide superior user-benefits in multiple categories.
High speed integrations are paramount to the success of any DCIM project. Some data centers have become jaded toward DCIM software, primarily based on the difficulty and time-consuming task of device integrations. NORLINX has solved that problem. GSM has been designed to be both hardware and protocol agnostic, enabling data collection to initiate at faster speeds than alternative DCIM options. With GSM, avoid integration headaches and get your DCIM solution working for you in rapid fashion.
With high speed integrations being a pivotal component of our value proposition, GSM software suites are competitively priced, providing further cost-savings to our users. With GSMpowerlite, users are provided with a free, entry-level introduction to our entire DCIM solution, ideal for smaller data centers or pilot programs in larger facilities. GSMessential, GSMprofessional and GSMenterprise, provide features that compound on one another, all priced on a per rack basis, with no restrictions on device or user quantities. Furthermore, our software is customizable, both at the feature and modular level. In total, GSM offers a low cost of ownership that any sized data center would desire.
In addition to high speed integrations and low cost of ownership, GSM has been built on a powerful "data-driven" backend, which is the engine that fuels our ability to reliably collect and display valuable data. DCIM software needs to consistently provide users with the information they need to make decisions with clarity and peace of mind. You can trust GSM to do just that.
Take a look at GSM's main feature categories below and click on our product pages to learn more about each individual software suite.
GSM Feature Categories
Power and Environmental Management
Power management is one of the most vital concerns in today's data center environment. Green initiatives and skyrocketing energy costs are compelling data center managers to make smarter, more energy-efficient choices when procuring power gear and end-user equipment. Our power and environmental management tools are designed to expose both the elements in the data center that present a power or thermal threat to the environment and those elements that weaken the efficiency of energy and cooling resources.
Electrical and Network Cable Mapping
Electrical and network mapping tools in GSM present clear, interactive views of all cable and port connections within the data center. Each connection and cable can be identified by barcode, and the movement of each connection can be tracked through its entire life cycle. Powerful reporting tools can quickly identify any devices upstream or downstream of a cable connection that may be impacted by the failure or removal of that connection.
Real Time Event and Alert Management
Event and alert management tools in GSM promptly notify data center managers about real-time power and environmental threats and can be easily customized to generate proactive alerts, allowing facilities and IT managers to correct environmental conditions before they pose a significant threat to infrastructure or production. Aggregate alerts can be created to consistently evaluate power and environmental relationships among multiple devices, ensuring that users are notified when the loss of redundancy or a fail over condition is about to occur.
Capacity Management
NORLINX's DCIM capacity management solution offer complete views of the capacity of each data center, including visuals reflecting the availability of network ports, power connections, U-space and power capacity within each cabinet, circuit panel, CRAC, UPS and more. Our user-friendly capacity management tools ensure that data center managers can quickly and easily access capacity information from a centralized repository.
Asset Management
Track and manage assets across multiple data centers with ease through an intuitive and robust suite of tools. Populate and maintain detailed information for racked equipment such as servers, storage devices, network appliances and floor devices such as Cabinets, UPS and CRAC units. Generate real-time and historical views or reports for any assets, including location, capacity and specification data. Take advantage of intelligent search and filtering tools to quickly locate assets across any number of data centers by barcode or device information.
Work Order Control
Our managed DCIM solutions are designed to help our clients create controlled, automated work order processes to smoothly manage devices moves, adds and changes over the life cycle of the data center. User-friendly management tools foster industry best practices by logically organizing tasks, changes and workflow processes from the start of a data center project to its completion.
Floor and Cabinet Visualization
NORLINX's floor and cabinet visualization suite is a performance-based solution with proven industry best practices, enabling intelligent capacity planning and precision visualizations of floor and cabinet assets. World-class tools are provided to optimize the usage of space and power resources for current and future deployment projects.
Reporting
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a vital metric used for determining a data center’s energy efficiency. We offer high-quality real-time PUE gauges that calculate energy efficiency by accurately measuring the power entering the data center against the actual power consumed by the computer server infrastructure within the data center. Automated reporting tools can generate efficiency reports on recurring schedules, in addition to kilowatt-hour billing reports, capacity reports and historical data graphs.