Modius Blog

A team collaborates in a control room with computers, developing advanced solutions for Data Center Infrastructure Management.

DCIM and IoT: Data Center Management Evolution

Bridging the gap between IoT and Asset Management By Sean Gately   Executive Summary Data centers evolved from simple mainframe housing to complex ecosystems requiring sophisticated infrastructure management. The microcomputer explosion of the 1980s created…

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A well-lit data center with control panels and equipment on both walls, and a safety mat guiding toward a secure door at the end.

Serial vs. LAN Interfaces in Data Center Equipment

Executive Summary Data center equipment uses two primary management interface types: serial (RS232/RS485), which relies on vendor-specific ASCII command protocols and requires physical gateway conversion hardware, and LAN (Ethernet), which uses standardized protocols like SNMP…

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A hand holding a pen points to data center performance charts and graphs, with a calculator on the paper, indicating infrastructure analysis.

PUE Estimation Without Perfect Metering: A Practical Guide (Part 2)

PUE in an Imperfect World Last week I started discussing the instrumentation and measurement of PUE when the data center shares resources with other facilities. The most common shared resource is chilled water, such as…

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A yellow industrial generator with visible pipes and wiring in a bright facility; backup batteries positioned in front for redundancy.

PUE Measurement with Shared Resources: Methods Explained (Part 1)

Measuring PUE with Shared Resources TL;DR: Measuring PUE in data centers that share mechanical resources (such as a campus chilled-water system) requires allocating the shared cooling system’s power consumption proportionally. The ideal approach uses sub-metered…

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Modern data center with organized server racks, blinking status lights, reflective floors, and overhead cabling for efficient management.

Colocation DCIM: Why Co-Los and MSPs Need Unified Monitoring

Executive Summary Colocation providers and MSPs require per-customer, rack-level power monitoring that standard enterprise data centers do not need. This granular data supports accurate customer billing, real-time portal reporting, PUE and carbon management, and multi-site…

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Team members monitor real-time analytics and infrastructure status on large wall-mounted screens in a data center control room.

Data Center Monitoring: Why Deployment Was So Hard

Executive Summary Data center monitoring has historically been hard to deploy because facilities equipment vendors built proprietary, poorly documented management protocols that resist integration with standard IT tools. While IT gear standardized on SNMP years…

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