Costs to Manually Collect Asset Information
- A drawback to manually entering data into an asset management system is the time cost to perform the initial data collection. At a typical cost of $13-$15 per asset (e.g. server) to manually collect visible data (name, manufacturer, model, serial number, and location) the initial data collection for a fully populated rack could cost more then $500.
- The collection of more detailed hardware information such as processor, memory, disk and network configuration or other information such as virtual machines and installed software would add considerably to this cost.
- Another issue with manual data entry is the inability to audit the data without performing yet another manual data collection. While the cost to audit the data may be less than the original data collection, it could still cost hundreds of dollars per rack. With regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPA and CFR-11, the need for more frequent audits can quickly increase these costs.
- Using this base model of $500 per rack is a general pricing model for deploying a DCiM solution, depending on the number of racks deployed in the data center
Courtesy No Limits Software 2011