In an increasingly energy-conscious world, AdInfa (www.adinfa.com) has developed InSite, a technology solution that allows data centres to monitor their IT equipment energy consumption.
This is crucial in providing a business case for optimising operational efficiencies and reducing energy bills and carbon footprint. The InSite system is enabled to send automated SMS alerts to companies when predetermined or unpredicted critical events occur in the monitoring of their data centre infrastructure.
AdInfa operates in the data centre energy management space, and its InSite software solution has been successfully deployed in several medium and large organisations. InSite's monitoring, alerting and reporting solution allows data centres to effectively manage their core infrastructure from a single, Web-based user interface.
Deciding on SMS alerts
Initially, AdInfa's customers requested that system alerts be sent from InSite to digital pagers, but these were quickly replaced by SMS and e-mails, as the value, accessibility and flexibility of the mobile phone was realised.
“AdInfa investigated SMS text message gateway providers in 2006, and after testing various scenarios, decided to partner with BulkSMS.com,” says Philip Petersen, CEO of AdInfa.
“At first there were some concerns over the reliability and delivery of SMS compared to e-mail, but face-to-face, real-time demonstrations showed our customers that SMS alerts were clearly the way to go. We have found BulkSMS.com to be a very reliable service provider, offering a service that is a vital part of delivering a great customer experience with InSite,” continues Petersen.
SMS-enabling systems
AdInfa has deployed BulkSMS.com's eAPI to SMS-enable its InSite software. The API provides a direct connection to the BulkSMS.com SMS gateway to facilitate the sending of InSite system generated messages. This ensures that AdInfa's data centre customers are informed of any critical events the moment they occur, by sending an SMS notification to pre-arranged mobile numbers.
InSite allows data centre managers to build reporting tailored to their infrastructure monitoring needs. For example, in the case of an energy threshold breach or an unscheduled event, an alert will automatically be sent to the relevant party's mobile phone.
According to Petersen: “Using SMS messaging to deliver automated alerts has meant our customers have been able to save many thousands of pounds in preventing unscheduled system downtime and breaches of service level agreements with their customers, as well as manage the carbon footprint of their data centre operations.”
"As is clear from this case study of AdInfa's InSite data centre energy management solution, SMS makes sense where technology providers are looking to provide real-time, system-driven communications to their customers. This is especially applicable where parties are best contacted by mobile phone and the company needs to track and keep a digital record of all communications. AdInfa's InSite solution does this in demonstrating how to green the future of IT," says Dr Pieter Streicher, managing director at BulkSMS.com.
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