Datacentre management software specialist Aperture will today launch a new version of its suite for monitoring physical assets in firms’ datacentres, featuring enhanced modelling capabilities designed to help improve availability and reduce energy costs.

Vista 500 offers IT administrators a visual representation of their datacentre’s physical assets that lets them model the impact on connectivity, heat and power requirements caused by any changes to their hardware environment, Aperture said.

“Previous versions of Vista told you what the status quo was,” said Sean Nicholson, the vendor’s director of product management. “But our customers wanted tools so that they could see not just how much cooling they required, for example, but how much they will require if they make certain changes.”

The updated suite also offers enhanced reporting functionality designed to ensure administrators are automatically notified if service level agreements are not being met, while new standardised processes have been added for managing the installation, migration and decommissioning of devices.

William Clifford, Aperture chief executive and chairman, said many datacentres lack tools to oversee hardware. “All the other [management software] players are focused on configuration management databases and SOA management, and we integrate with them,” he said. “But most firms don’t have a database for monitoring the physical assets and are using an Excel spreadsheet or the back of a napkin.”

Clifford said this approach means many firms are risking unnecessary downtime. “There is a situation now where if you pick the wrong rack to add a server you’ll create a hot spot and bring down your whole datacentre,” he added.

Failure to model the impact of hardware changes can also leave firms running out of space, power or cooling capacity, said Aperture.

Nicholson argued that visibility over the infrastructure lets firms cut costs and optimise their layouts. “One of our banking customers used Vista and found they could free up 13 percent more space,” he said.