Data Center Geeks Hub

There is no more persuasive way to evaluate your product’s performance on the market that through the firsthand account from the people involved with it daily, is there? Not to mention that by sharing their thought-inspiring stories, we can encourage more and more business owners to take over the reins and improve the effectiveness of their strategies by leaps and bounds. With this thought leading us, we have recently sat down to have a brief conversation with Vincentas Grinius – the Co-founder and CEO at Heficed – about the dynamics of modern data center architectures and how a robust automation strategy to manage them is critical to thrive and succeed. Spoiler alert - our software threw its two cents of worth in there! Past… Today, Heficed is a top server infrastructure and IPv4 lease provider that boasts of having revolutionized the way companies and organizations order, deploy and manage IP addresses. But at the very beginning of their journey over 10 years ago, soon after stepping into the data center market, they quickly came to realize the volume of work they had to confront daily. Vincentas himself admits that with such an extensive infrastructure covering 10 data centers globally come great demands. After having tried a few other solutions and combining them with excel sheets, he quickly had to face the reality: “Most of the solutions we employed before EasyDCIM were really limited. We haven't had hardware stock management. We processed OS installations manually. It was the primary reason we kept looking further and came across EasyDCIM which quickly appeared to fit our needs the most.” …present… From shared hosting provider, through cloud services, to finally arrive at the desired business profile - network engineering and IP management. Now, Heficed automates and speeds up the otherwise time-consuming manual process of managing the large volume of various IP addresses. It cannot go unnoticed that throughout the last year, the company’s growth started gathering speed and since we were really curious, we asked Vincentas whether the fact of deploying EasyDCIM three years ago had something to do with that. “Of course, it helped us a lot. EasyDCIM is a great assistant in managing our hardware assets much more efficiently, and thanks to it we have finally started to provision OS installations automatically.” Having a 360-degree view of the infrastructure at all times is actually the thing most of the companies we interviewed put in the spotlight. But even though, there is still one more thing that Vincentas pointed out as the one that proved of great value to him – statistics on server usage. Still, when we asked about which single chunk of EasyDCIM brought the biggest advantage to his business routine we got yet another different answer. “I would have to say that meta tags are definitely the greatest. Their flexibility and usefulness are best confirmed by our Head of Infrastructure who is responsible for the whole setup, remains in charge of the inventory and to whom meta tags turned out to be irreplaceable in labeling all of the bits and pieces.” Vincentas is in fact among the many people to mention that meta tags appeared as a real life-saver for his company. And since that has been always one of our primary goals to make daily data center duties as swift and effortless as possible, we are genuinely pleased to hear those kind words of approval! …future Customer feedback companies receive may be twofold: sometimes it comes with appraisals, and sometimes – with expectations. For us, it has always been the focal point of software development to brainstorm ideas with clients, hearing them out and finding the most optimal solutions together. There is always room for many more improvements and novel features yet to be implemented. Heficed was more than generous to provide us not only with all the support to our platform but also with a motivation to continue striving for excellence. And it is thanks to the first-hand feedback of such companies that we know what our audience needs and, most of all, whether the changes we actively employ have turned out to be as practical as we planned. So, looking ahead into the future of EasyDCIM, we asked Vincentas Grinius about the upgrades that he is still eager to see in our software. At the top of his list appeared an expanded toolkit related to network aggregation – and since we align ourselves with this prospect, we already cannot wait to get around to it! And we hope you will share this excitement with us! Regardless of whether your adventure with web hosting is just starting or perhaps you have lately found yourself stuck with the mediocrity, let the word of recommendation that Vincentas was so kind as to share with us, lead you straight to EasyDCIM!

Which data center company doesn’t dream of expanding its operations to the new markets? It is only natural that once you settle in comfortably with your venture, the vision of making even bigger of a profit soon pops in. The first foothold that needs to be established for the future growth is choosing the DCIM software that you will rely on to manage, organize and monitor the components of your data center. And, as our most recent case study of a certain British company proves, the sooner you find the right solution for yourself, the sooner you can start branching out safely. Feel welcome to follow us on this insightful talk with Chris Murrell, the Chief Technology Officer at Netcetera! The struggle was real Today Netcetera is one of Europe's leading web hosting service providers, supplying customers worldwide with top-notch colocation, dedicated servers and managed infrastructure services scaled perfectly to their needs. Chris admits that with such an extensive offer come great demands. Being active on the market since 1996, the company had to find a viable way to centralize all their daily activities from device assignment and supervision to client management. Curious about how Netcetera was able to keep all those aspects under control, we asked Chris what kind of software they used before moving to EasyDCIM: "We relied on our own, in-built DCIM solution to manage PDUs, switches and other devices, but all of that on a very basic level. Nothing as advanced as EasyDCIM which is an all-in-one control panel for everything you need – adding switches or PDU devices to a server, handling clients and so on." As a matter of fact, Netcetera is not the first company that we interviewed which developed their own, in-house software. But just like in other cases, instead of sinking money into the current tool and expanding it with further features, they opted for an external, fully-fledged solution. The choice which, as Chris remarks, was simply a much more rational and easier alternative for them at the time: "We were looking for a solution to let clients manage their dedicated servers as well as reboot and reinstall them whenever needed." While the proprietary software they developed was fairly practical for the internal use, it simply allowed for very little freedom when it comes to remote server management from the client’s side. All pieces of data center inventory finally in place DCIM software guarantees that all tasks within data center are done exactly the same way each time they are performed. Chris reveals that using EasyDCIM, they were able to reduce IT costs and by freeing up those extra resources - increase service quality: "We have been running our data center for over 28 years and have grown a substantial customer base that is constantly growing every day, in large extent thanks to EasyDCIM." During our interview, Chris pointed out multiple ways in which EasyDCIM streamlined the internal, day-to-date tasks flow in Netcetera: "We use EasyDCIM not only for clients but also ourselves. We have added all our PDUs and switches in it so it’s now easy for us to discover why, for example, a certain device didn’t turn on or off as wanted. EasyDCIM is great for managing all sorts of devices and controlling our infrastructure in overall." Imagine a day of work without having to carry out any of the menial tasks ever again. This is how Chris and his fellow staff members felt after delegating the control over their devices fully to EasyDCIM. Before, they had to first find the correct server, then the rack, and lastly, go through all the switches to see what port they were connected to. "With EasyDCIM we are able to look up the server and view all the relates switches, ports and PDUs right away" – Chris comments. Fostering the culture of environment-friendly data center Optimizing the daily work is just one of the benefits Netcetera discovered after centralizing their infrastructure management into EasyDCIM. Another perk was the ability to further reduce the carbon footprint of their data center facility by increasing power efficiency. The policy of green hosting that the company has been guided by since its formation is being executed through multiple means, including the routine monitoring of data center devices usage. "Every month we are doing a special report detailing how much power usage our PDUs generate so before EasyDCIM we had to implement an external network monitoring software for this purpose. EasyDCIM provides us by default with all the statistics we are concerned about the most and allows us to access them via intelligent graphs. As a matter of fact, we used all different kinds of software for traffic monitoring but only with EasyDCIM it’s all there in one place." But EasyDCIM is not only about empowering data center owners. We wanted to give end clients the same amount of freedom when it comes to the supervision of their servers and real-time power usage straight within the confines of a dedicated customer panel. Did we accomplish that? Chris’s final words seem to be speaking in favor of this fact: "Our audience can easily see how much traffic they’re using and we can bill them every month which is just the perfect solution for us. Also, having remote access to all basic server commands is a huge convenience for them on an everyday basis." Summing up All good things come to an end and so did our wonderful chat with Chris Murrell. But before parting ways, we could not help ourselves but to humbly ask Chris if he would recommend our software to other entrepreneurs. He was more than generous with his response: "Oh, I would recommend EasyDCIM hands down. It has everything in one place, it’s easy to manage and the support is great as well. Whenever I have an issue or get stuck on something, I message the team and they get back to me with further instructions or working solutions." We are ever so grateful to Netcetera for this huge vote of confidence. Being able to do what we are passionate about and helping other businessmen at the same time is for us the best kind of a reward we could ever wish for. Not a part of the EasyDCIM family yet? Feel invited to power our ranks! See our system in action and join now to make your data center management a labor of love!

Modern data center architectures are getting more and more complex. So much so that without a robust automation strategy managing them would be close to impossible. Unarguably, automation spares lots of pains by minimizing human errors, cutting the costs and freeing up the staff from mundane but essential data center tasks. No one knows it better than Neil Emeigh, President at Rayobyte. We were more than honored to help his company thrive on ever new levels of automation through our software. Recently Neil agreed to join us in a little chat and spill some beans on what made his company choose EasyDCIM in the first place. Have a pleasant reading! Before EasyDCIM... Rayobyte has stepped into the data center market a few years back and as many other start-ups, soon realized the amount of work that was cut out for them. Most of all, they needed a reliable automation software solution that would provide centralized access to all their data center resources. First off, we asked Neil what tools Rayobyte was using for this purpose before finding their way to EasyDCIM. The very first solution (Neil could not help but smile at the sheer thought of it) was just a makeshift excel sheet online that they quickly abandoned in search of more efficient alternatives. But none of them seemed to meet the needs of a yet developing company entirely. The two software instruments that did capture their interest were either too pricey, or "features were impossible to implement upon request, nor could we do it ourselves due to no API. Too many bugs/issues didn't allow us to be comfortable growing." After being on a hunt for a perfect tool for a while, Rayobyte came across EasyDCIM, and luckily for both sides – stayed there for longer. ...And After Today, Rayobyte uses EasyDCIM to run and manage hundreds of servers that operate their popular proxy service. Interested in what exactly changed for Rayobyte after they have switched their business automation software, we turned to Neil for some extra insight. And we got more than we could have wished for! "All of our owned hardware and parts are stored in a single system that allows for automatic ordering with WHMCS. Other management abilities (PDU, switch, CPU/temp/etc, etc) are yet to be used to their full potential, but as they continue to mature we'll be adopting them more and more. The biggest achievement is being comfortable having all our inventory in a system we can trust for the long term." Being obsessed with server provisioning and management automation, we never stop seeking new ways to push it to the next level in EasyDCIM. This obviously includes peeking at the other players on the market and learning a thing or two from them whenever we can. This time also we jumped at the opportunity and picked Neil’s brains on how he would rate automation in EasyDCIM versus other software his company had the chance to test out. Without a shadow of doubt in his voice, Neil concluded that most of them, "from order to sending out an email for the credentials for the server and the IPMI include some steps that require human involvement and we didn’t have that problem with EasyDCIM." Being oriented at fast service delivery, you must be able to reduce the time needed for ongoing tasks and concentrating on more strategic projects. And who doesn’t like the idea of generating maximum profit with minimum effort, right? Neil also agrees that "spending an hour of engineer time to set up a server takes away a lot from the bottom line". Establishing a solid software background is pivotal to reducing IT costs without losing out on service quality. And we feel extremely proud to have been recognized by Rayobyte as a means to this end! Before heading over to the last part of our conversation, we probed Neil about the feature that his company keeps deriving the greatest advantage from. "Full automatic deployment from start to end after a WHMCS order. This end to end solution has potential that is not seen very easily on the market elsewhere." This particular piece of feedback added a lot to our confidence because many clients in fact approached us on the subject of integration between EasyDCIM and WHMCS in the past. And so, seeing the growing interest in this popular billing and automation platform, we finally hooked up with guys from ModulesGarden who are experts at designing high-end addons for the WHMCS system. As a result of this close cooperation two modules were delivered - EasyDCIM Dedicated Servers For WHMCS and EasyDCIM Colocation For WHMCS. Both are offered completely free of charge to let you enjoy the best of two worlds at the same time. And it was great to hear from Rayobyte they really do! The power of feedback Many companies shy away from customer feedback. Because sometimes it comes with appraisals, sometimes – expectations. We thrive on both. To us, software development is more about brainstorming ideas with clients, finding the most optimal solutions, and working hard towards their direct implementation. And Rayobyte was more than generous with all the support they shared on our platform throughout these many months of being our dear partner. During today’s session we received even some more: "Without your responsive team fixing bugs, adding features, etc, my feelings toward the product might be entirely different. You have me as a customer for life and your one-time expenses for this amazing developer team will pay off over the months/years. A very wise business model that I highly suggest you continue to pursue." These words melted our hearts. But much as we appreciate this token of loyalty, we never intend to simply rest on our laurels. So, looking ahead into the future of EasyDCIM a bit, we asked Neil Emeigh about the upgrades that he would still love to see in our software. At the top of his company’s list appeared a broader toolkit related to IP management. And feeling pretty closely aligned with this prospect, we already look forward to getting around to it in earnest! Final thoughts Nowadays data centers have plenty of responsibilities, but not necessarily personnel. Rayobyte realized that the only way up is through full-time automation of their server ordering, provisioning, and management processes. This decision led them straight to EasyDCIM. Did they ever consider switching back to the tools they once tested? We believe Neil's following words to speak for themselves: "As for server management, inventory, monitoring, ordering, etc, nothing compares to EasyDCIM in terms of functionality and price." Slightly apprehensive but also full of hope, the moment came to ask Neil the decisive question. Whether he would recommend EasyDCIM to other server providers struggling with similar shortages his company once faced. Neil answered with an anecdote about how he met up with a close friend only to find out that they both used and loved EasyDCIM. This can only mean one thing - two testimonies are better than one, right? :) But still, nothing can compete with first-hand experience so see for yourself how EasyDCIM can help your company reach new heights of success!

Over the last years the demand for easier, faster, and more efficient server provisioning and data center management has immensely intensified. But so have our attempts to fill the niche in these soaring expectations with ever more simple and intuitive design of our control panel. How well did we perform in accomplishing this goal? We feel in no position to answer this question ourselves, therefore we sat down today with Ahmed Shibani, the Chief Technology Officer at Libyan Spider, for a brief conversation about the dynamic nature of modern data centers and how EasyDCIM helped his company overcome the obstacles that were stopping it in the tracks. Libyan Spider on a quest for innovation Through the course of many years of business activity, Libyan Spider was relying on an open source DCIM system which had a fairly narrow set of utilities, but allowed them to provide personalized web hosting services to their clients with a satisfactory level of automation. Up to a point, that is, when the company’s board figured out that "If we can substantially decrease the time and effort required to bring our customers visualizations into realization, then we and our customers would both benefit greatly". Needless to say, saying goodbye to the outdated and somewhat crude software solution was for Libyan Spider the first step that they needed to make before plunging into this ambitious venture. Looking backward at the limitations that were preventing his company from making the dynamic progress they were set on, Ahmed notices: "As our infrastructure grew larger, we needed a robust solution that would allow us to have a 360 degrees view of our infrastructure at all times. And when a datacenter becomes larger you realize there are so many things to track, from available ports on a switch, to power management, bandwidth management, provisioning, etc". But greater administrative flexibility and round-the-clock monitoring of both software and hardware components were not the only requirements that their future control panel needed to incorporate. Ahmed goes on to reveal that when taking the long-term approach towards budget planning, you also need something to "fit nicely with your billing system." EasyDCIM steps in to fill the gap After recounting all sorts of specific essentials that they were after, Ahmed mentions that when this decisive moment finally came, Libyan Spider bound their future with EasyDCIM. When asked in what ways our tool exactly helped his company achieve the far-reaching goals they had pinned for themselves, without a moment of hesitation Ahmed replied: "EasyDCIM has delivered our expectations and surpassed it, it has allowed us to bring the datacenter closer to our customers, and it has made our technical staff's life easier". With our spirits immensely uplifted in reaction to this powerful vote of confidence, we immediately sprang up to learn some more details on the experience that Libyan Spider have had with our software throughout the many years of using it. Once again, we were deeply touched to hear that: "Today we depend on EasyDCIM as an accurate inventory management system, we trust it with servers life cycle management, integration with WHMCS and NOC-PS has decreased our average server delivery time from 24 hours to 1 hour." We were no less delighted about some truly kind-hearted words on our customer service as well: "and on top of that you get awesome friendly support." As our conversation was nearing to an end, partly of our own curiosity but mostly with the aim to understand our clients’ needs even better for the future, we asked Ahmed which single chunk of EasyDCIM brought the biggest boon to his business routine. Would you like to know what his first response was? "My favorite feature would be Server Provisioning, integration with NOC-PS is exceptional and reliable. This wouldn't have been possible if EasyDCIM didn't have another great feature which is IPMI Integration." Was it worth it? The final verdict Keeping in mind what led Libyan Spider to switching their old control panel for a more cutting-edge model in the first place, this answer may not have come as a complete shock to us, but left us with some other valuable conclusions instead. When we were preparing for this interview, our primary focus was to encourage other companies out there in the world to get out of the box that is confining them, and seek out innovative business solutions that provide them with plenty of room for growth. Just like Libyan Spider did. But little did we realize that this little project will turn into a valuable lesson for ourselves as well. A spark of hope, actually, that everything we are doing to help companies increase their productivity by taking as many redundant, repetitive tasks off their shoulders as possible, has a tangible impact that ripples through every sector of their lives. Whether you are just starting your journey with web hosting or find yourself stuck in the routine of mediocrity, let the passionate words of recommendation that Ahmed was so kind as to share with us today, guide you straight to EasyDCIM!