BMS & DCIM Integration: How It Works & Benefits

Both Building Management Systems (BMS) and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) are familiar to those who manage and work within data centers. However, their interrelation isn’t always simple.

For a variety of reasons, BMS isn’t always optimized to seamlessly integrate with DCIM software. Further, facilities often experience data and communication silos between IT management and facility operations that can exacerbate the issue. Nonetheless, such incomplete integration can underutilize available capacities, prohibit cost-efficient operations, and result in missing peak performance.

A comprehensive management solution can integrate the central interface for a multitude of benefits.

What’s unique about DCIM?

DCIM grants access to critical information for managers of data centers. It provides measurements, gives alerts, surfaces equipment performance, among other functions to equip decision makers. However, all the data that’s provided will need to be interpreted, translated, and enacted into maintenance and improvement solutions.

What’s unique about BMS?

Compared with DCIM, BMS is more concerned with the mechanical and technical elements of systems, such as security, power, lighting, and heating and cooling. It often has more control in these mechanical systems through its automatic operations, which can include but are not limited to: physical access controls, surveillance, fire detection, enacting economization modes, opening and closing valves, and more.

How does DCIM and BMS integration work?

DCIM and BMS have some similar functions, in monitoring power consumption, aiding PUE calculation, sending alerts, and more. However, combining their individual strengths leads to composite gains.

DCIM excels in providing data. BMS excels in making data actionable. Working towards integrating the two, then, can result in the provided data which translates into tangible actions and solutions. Practically, this can take many forms but often results in automatic rules and sequences being established so that the data center is optimized and requires less user intervention.

What are the benefits of DCIM and BMS integration?

The integration of DCIM and BMS, overall, allows the detailed data provided by DCIM to aid the operation of a critical range of systems BMS is responsible for enacting. It allows for informed operational management for specialized IT functioning.

The benefits do not stop there, however. This integration enhances planning capacity, enables many operational functions to be performed and optimized, often results in reducing power utilization, provides further actionable insight into analytics and reporting, grants a view into the complexities of different IT components, and more. In the long term, it can enhance planning and make the data center’s operations even more reliable in the future. Further, it can effect the daily operations by requiring less personnel to manually monitor processes.

All in all, although Data Center Infrastructure Management and Building Management Systems have separate and unique features, when integrated, they can make a tangible and lasting impact on data centers.