Raritan‘s dcTrack data center infrastructure management software solution recently became available as a VMware-ready virtual appliance. The offering lowers total cost of ownership by simplifying installation and saving time during deployment and configuration. The virtual appliance model eliminates platform operating system and database licensing costs, along with associated integration costs. 

Raritan (News - Alert) provides power management, infrastructure management, KVM, and serial solutions for data centers. Its solution’s Web-based architecture and a number of new usability enhancements enable dcTrack release 2.4 to improve the daily operations of managing change and capacity in the data center. In addition, operating costs resulting from decentralized and manual tracking of data center assets are reduced. The upgrade comes at no charge for customers covered under Raritan’s software maintenance agreement. 

The dcTrack product’s point-and-click access to asset information and Visio-like visualization tools are designed to help improve data center utilization. Operators, using accurate up-to-date information, along with detailed power and Ethernet cable plant management, can quickly locate available capacity and determine optimal locations for placement of IT equipment in their data centers. dcTrack maintains real-time views and granular details of servers, networking, and environmental assets and their connections across the data center. Up-to-the-minute views of a data center's power consumption, heat dissipation, and available floor and cabinet/rack space permit efficient capacity management.

"dcTrack provides clarity into data center operations — what you have, where it is, and how it’s connected — in order to support decision making and to avert unplanned interruptions in service," said James Cerwinski, Raritan’s manager for software products, in a statement. "It eliminates the complexity of multiple spreadsheets, floor plans, and connection diagrams by incorporating all data center information into a single consolidated solution for better correlation and analysis. This makes moves, adds and changes, and capacity management easier, faster and more accurate. It helps improve data center efficiency and productivity, thereby lowering the cost of data center operations." 

The enhancements in release 2.4 simplify data center management by delivering easier data imports, LDAP user authentication, and a better user interface. The offering also includes new workflow/audit reports.