Introduction: A Pause to Plan for Hybrid IT
As organisations increasingly navigate hybrid IT landscapes, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT DCIM suite positions itself as a catalyst for resiliency, security, and sustainability. The 2024 updates reflect a deliberate response to real-world challenges—shortening incident times, simplifying governance, and delivering data-driven insights that enable smarter capital and operational choices.
Increasing Resiliency: Smarter Alarms, Easier Operations
Resiliency starts with precision. Alarm Threshold Policies in IT Expert allow users to craft nuanced criteria—for example, triggering an alert only if the temperature remains 25 degrees above normal for more than 30 minutes. This targeted approach reduces alarm fatigue and helps operators respond to genuine risks faster. Other resiliency enhancements include:
- Service Contracts and Visits Widget on the IT Expert dashboard for a weekly snapshot of device health and contract status.
- Windows Event Logging for PowerChute with centralised Syslog options, enabling enterprise-scale monitoring and compliance reporting.
- Extended PowerChute vCLS Support across all UPS configurations, providing flexibility for clusters where full host shutdown isn’t desirable.
- LDAP authentication on the Network Management Card (NMC) to streamline secure remote access via Active Directory or OpenLDAP.
- Remote Command Execution via SSH for coordinated shutdowns of storage arrays or integral systems.
- Consolidation of Data Centre Expert Syslogs for a simpler, single-point logging strategy.
Together, these features reduce downtime risk and improve operational efficiency, helping IT teams keep critical services up and running even as the data centre footprint grows.
Strengthening Security: Modernizing the Shield Around IT Assets
Cybersecurity remains a core concern as the threat landscape and regulatory expectations evolve. Schneider Electric has introduced several high-impact capabilities to harden data centre operations and streamline updates:
- Mass Configuration: Configure IDs and passwords across devices remotely in the cloud, accelerating secure onboarding and policy enforcement.
- Secure Protocol in Data Centre Expert: Upgrades from SNMPv1 to SNMPv3, elevating encryption and access controls with the push of a button.
- IEC 62443-4-2 Security Level 2 certification for the EcoStruxure IT NMC Platform, making it the first DCIM NMC to reach this standard.
- ISASecure SDLA Compliance: Development processes certified for secure lifecycle assurance, reinforcing trust in the software and devices that manage critical infrastructure.
- EcoStruxure IT Secure NMC System (SNS): Faster firmware research and installation—up to 90% quicker—reducing exposure to known vulnerabilities.
These security enhancements simplify policy implementation, improve traceability, and minimize attack surfaces—essential for data centres that blend on-premises assets with cloud-based management.
Sustainability at the Core: Data-Driven, Actionable Reporting
One of 2024’s standout advances was the arrival of model-based, automated sustainability reporting. This capability enables organisations to quantify and publish sustainability metrics at the click of a button, transforming raw data into actionable insights. The initiative aligns with regulatory timelines, arriving ahead of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, and signals a strategic pivot toward Green IT practices.
Alison Matte, EcoStruxure IT Sustainability Lead, emphasises that sustainability is about reducing energy consumption, lowering costs, and cutting waste—while maintaining performance. The new reporting tools, coupled with Green IT governance efforts led by Schneider Electric’s CIO team, deliver user-friendly dashboards that translate complex metrics into clear business decisions.
Looking Ahead: A Future Where Hybrid IT Meets AI
Schneider Electric anticipates that hybrid IT environments will become more complex as artificial intelligence and edge computing accelerate. The EcoStruxure IT team aims to guide customers through these transitions, ensuring resilient, secure, and sustainable IT infrastructure anywhere. By continuing to expand automation, governance, and transparency, the platform will help data centres scale responsibly while meeting evolving compliance and performance standards.
