- EPC Solutions Taiwan’s new DCIM system consists of two boxes of hardware—as well as software and API—to track the location of IT assets in data centers.
- The system tracks conditions with sensor tags, and enables a digital record of movement and maintenance of servers, routers and other assets.
Protection of assets at data centers (from theft or damage) is managed through a variety of technology-based or manual security. Companies already offer costly data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software that rely on a variety of environmental and IoT systems to capture data. Paying workers to track inventory and conditions is another high cost.
Focusing on this challenge, EPC Solutions Taiwan has developed a passive, real-time monitoring system (RTLS) for data centers to provide equipment management and theft protection. It’s designed to be low cost and easy to manage.
In fact, in a matter of hours or less, data center personnel can install the solution’s UHF RAIN RFID reader, with cable antennas mounted on racks, attach tags to the assets themselves, and mount additional reader antennas at doorways. The result is a system designed to identify what assets are onsite, when and how they are serviced, and when they are moved or removed.
The company’s DCIM Solution is designed to prevent thefts, create automatic equipment inventory and sensor-based temperature detection, said T.H. Liu, EPC Solutions’ president.
Protecting Against Theft, Tracking Inventory
If a theft takes place at a data center, often identifying when it happened and who was involved can be a slow process. Data centers are filled with server racks, routers, modems and servers, all of which are high value and sensitive to the conditions around them.
The benefits of EPC Solutions’ DCIM solution, said Liu, “can be found in time savings, people productivity, and cost savings.” In developing the solution, the company’s goal is to provide visibility to RFID tagged servers at data centers that may be monitored remotely.
Once the system is in place, Liu predicted, “employees no longer need to be on-site to identify what assets are in the data center and what space and environment is available.”
How it Works
The DCIM Solution includes on-premise software, as well as two boxes of hardware for each rack of IT assets. One box contains the reader, the other includes cable antennas, adapter and on-metal tags. Users can order any number of reader, antennas and tags.
To deploy, users insert the reader module in the bottom of each server rack. One end of the antenna adapter is plugged into one of the reader’s four ports and the other end is attached to the cable antenna. That antenna is then connected to the rack with plastic zip ties or mounted with magnetics.
Users apply tags to the assets they need to track—routers, switches and servers, for instance.
Once they install the software they simply turn on the reader and prompt the reader to create an RF field around the cable antenna, to capture each of the tag IDs. The tag ID can be linked to each specific asset in the software.
Role of Antennas
By using cable antennas they can be flexible and easy to install, with a read range up to 1.5 meters around the antenna, said Liu. The cable antenna length can be customized. The company provides a two meter cable antenna for standard 42U (42-rack) cabinets.
In the case of more challenging assets, including blade servers, the system can leverage the 50-centimeter extension cable antennas. In the case of tags that are out of reach of the cable antenna, users also add antenna extensions.
The system is designed to be customized according to how often the reader interrogates the tags. Rates could be every second, every minute or every hour.
Tracking Removal at Exit
The exit portal leverages a Zebra FX-7500 fixed reader and antennas which users install around doorways to detect with a tagged item is being removed.
If someone takes a piece of IT equipment out of the data center, the rack readers no longer receive the tag transmission, which updates the asset’s status in the software. The tags are read by the fixed reader antennas at the exit as well, if someone attempts to remove that asset. That action triggers alarm system as well as creates a record and time-stamp of that item’s removal.
Management reports are then created specific to overall trends, a rack, or even a particular port.
Tracking Conditions
For cabinet environmental monitoring, temperature can be an important factor in the health of equipment. Data centers often experience hotspots in specific locations within a large area and identifying that high temperature location is challenging.
The solution comes with an environmental component. The Axzon temperature and humidity RFID tags capture sensor data and transmit that information when interrogated by the reader. The tags can be peeled and affixed directly to assets.
In that way, with the reader cable antenna built into the rack, the data center management has real time data about temperatures or humidity that could indicate a problem or cause damage to the high value assets.
Exception Tracking, Including Maintenance and Moving
For data centers the benefits will be multi-fold, said Liu. The solution will create a real-time view into what assets are onsite, as well as how they are configured and connected. The RFID tags on each unit can be used for maintenance so that a record is automatically stored with that item’s identity in the software.
If assets need to be moved, added or deleted, the RFID reader antennas can help create that digital record. If a new asset is introduced, its data can be entered into the system by the user. Additionally, the workers who handle the equipment can be identified through the system as well, and a time stamp is created related to when the work was completed.
Companies of varying sizes are expected to employ the technology, Liu said, but he added that “the larger the data center (the more servers it has), the greater the need for this kind of system management.”
The software is provided along with application programming interface (API) for development by users. EPC Solutions is also in the process of developing a cloud version. The technology has been tested and received a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan. The DCIM Solution will be commercially released in July 2025.