Building a More Resilient, Secure, and Sustainable Data Center
As hybrid IT environments continue to evolve, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT remains at the forefront of delivering resilient, secure, and sustainable data center infrastructure management (DCIM). The 2024 updates equip customers to navigate complexity with clearer alarms, smarter security, and automated sustainability reporting—empowering IT and facilities teams to operate with greater efficiency and confidence.
Resiliency: Smarter Monitoring and Alarm Management
Resilience is about preventing downtime and ensuring rapid recovery when issues arise. EcoStruxure IT introduces several enhancements that sharpen situational awareness and reduce alarm fatigue:
- Alarm Threshold Policies in IT Expert: Create advanced criteria so alarms trigger only when meaningful conditions occur, such as a temperature spike of more than 25 degrees above normal for 30 minutes. This targeted approach lowers noise and speeds response times.
- Service Contracts and Visits Widget: A centralized view on the IT Expert dashboard displays device service contract status with weekly updates, helping teams plan maintenance before problems occur.
- Windows Event Logging for PowerChute and Syslog Support: Centralized event monitoring improves visibility across large environments, enabling quicker root-cause analysis and better incident response.
- Extended PowerChute vCLS Support: With broader UPS configuration coverage, organizations gain flexibility in graceful shutdown strategies when needed, without disrupting critical workloads.
Other resiliency-focused enhancements include LDAP authentication on the Network Management Card (NMC) for secure access control and remote command execution via SSH, enabling controlled, graceful actions on storage arrays and similar systems during maintenance windows.
Security: Elevating Cyber Hygiene Across the DCIM Stack
Security remains non-negotiable as cyber threats grow in sophistication. Schneider Electric has introduced robust measures designed to simplify secure operations and updates:
- Mass Configuration in IT Expert: Admins can update IDs and passwords across multiple devices remotely from the cloud, reducing exposure and ensuring consistent security postures.
- Secure Protocols in Data Centre Expert: Upgrading device communications from SNMPv1 to SNMPv3 strengthens encryption and access controls with a single click.
- IEC Certification for EcoStruxure IT NMC Platform: The NMC now holds IEC 62443-4-2 Security Level 2, marking a milestone in DCIM cybersecurity.
- ISASecure SDLA Compliance: Development processes meet industry-standard secure development lifecycle requirements, enhancing trust and reliability.
- EcoStruxure IT Secure NMC System (SNS): Accelerates firmware research and deployment, delivering up to a 90% faster update cycle and reducing cybersecurity risk.
Sustainability: Automated, Actionable Reporting
The 2024 highlights include model-based, automated sustainability reporting features designed to quantify and communicate environmental impact at the click of a button. These tools were released to all EcoStruxure IT users in April, ahead of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) implementation, signaling Schneider Electric’s commitment to greener data centers.
As Alison Matte, Sustainability Lead for EcoStruxure IT, noted, sustainability is about lowering energy consumption, reducing costs, and minimizing waste in data centers where IT assets are managed. By offering user-friendly metrics and dashboards, Schneider Electric empowers organizations to set, track, and improve performance against energy and emissions targets.
Looking Ahead: Preparing for the AI-Driven Hybrid Cloud
Schneider Electric anticipates continued growth in hybrid IT complexity, particularly with AI-driven workloads entering data centers. The EcoStruxure IT team plans to build on 2024’s momentum by further strengthening resilience, security, and sustainability capabilities. The goal is clear: help customers maintain the most reliable, secure, and sustainable IT infrastructure anywhere, even as technologies and workloads evolve rapidly.
Conclusion
EcoStruxure IT’s 2024 enhancements demonstrate a comprehensive approach to DCIM that aligns resiliency, security, and sustainability with real-world IT operations. With smarter alarm management, stronger security controls, and automated sustainability reporting, organizations can reduce risk, cut energy use, and streamline workflows—ensuring data centers remain robust and ready for the future.
