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OBTAIN 24/7 Data Center Planning Software

Knowledge Flow Corporation

Knowledge Flow Corporation provides state of the art configuration software to the world's data centers. Their software products provide solutions to the complex task of managing fiber and copper connectivity and power management. The inclusion of financial data such as contracts, warranties, service billing, budgets and forecasts, provides customers with the most powerful and integrated data center configuration management software tool available today.

OBTAIN 24/7

The OBTAIN 24/7 software tool enables all the players in the planning process; hardware planners, system programmers, facilities specialists, electricians, vendors and operations to participate in a planning process at their convenience. It provides the capability to plan multiple scenarios for each hardware change and to keep all planning data in sync with the 'production' data and between competing plans. Common resources such as patch panel slots or switching capability can be reserved to prevent conflicting plans. Best of all, planners can view the changes and progress in the planning cycle without wasting the time used by other planning methods to keep everyone informed and actively engaged in the process.

Key Features

Asset and Connectivity database able to record data for:

• All devices, including Mainframe, Open System and Network devices.
• Internal device features, control units, logical partitioning.
• All device ports, CHPIDs, interface.
• Warranty, install/deinstall dates, contract and leasing information.
• All fiber cables including ESCON, FICON, Fibre Channel, FDDI, etc.
• All copper cables including Bus & Tag, SCSI, CAT5, Coax, etc.
• All physical connectivity between devices and internal connectivity through switching equipment.
• All power equipment and connectivity.
• Device racks.
• Copper and fiber patch panels and cabinets.
• SAN Fabric definition including aliases, zone sets and zone members.
• All asset and connectivity data defined once with multiple physical/logical displays of the data from different physical/logical viewpoints.
• Able to link an asset to external documents such as Word documents, CAD drawings, spreadsheets,

Imports/Exports

• Device import
• Cable import
• HCD import
• VOLSER import
• MS Access export
• Spreadsheet export

Reports and Diagrams

• Dynamically generate connectivity diagrams using data from the Asset and Connectivity database.
• Create connectivity diagrams from multiple viewpoints, such as from a server, subsystem, switch, patch panel, or individual cable.
• Customizable reports can be created for all OBTAIN assets: devices, cables, patch panels, power equipment.
• Create a Device Report with an include/exclude based on connectivity, location, warranty/lease/install dates, device type, power status or specifically selected devices. For example, this report could be tailored to filter and report on all of the devices located on the 2nd floor, which are connected to one or more specified host images/servers/switches and which come off lease by a certain date.
• Report tailoring for all diagrams and reports are saved on a per-user basis.
• Output reports and diagrams to a PC monitor, printer, plotter or file (.bmp, .dxf or .htm).

Graphical Interface

• Customizable GUI display of all assets and connectivity.
• Multiple search options including search by serial number, asset ID, location, device type, internal components, MVS address, IP address, FC alias, WWPN, connectivity to other devices, SSID, etc.
• Able to view a device dynamically from several perspectives, such as connectivity, device rack location and floor tile position, with all viewpoints automatically updated when the asset and connectivity data is changed.

Multi-Site, Multi-User

• Concurrent read/write IP access by multiple users in multiple locations.
• Logon security.
• Definable access restrictions for each user.
• Device spreadsheet generation for data from multiple data centers.
• Transaction-based update with rollback features.
• Workorder-based update that allows what-if planning without impact on the 'production' data.
• Workorder-based update that:
• allows multiple plans to be applied to the production data in any order.
• prevents double allocation of resources between two separate plans.
• updates a plan automatically with all changes made to the 'production' data during the life of the plan.

Download an evaluation copy of the software at www.obtain.com/ordercdvion.htm

For more information see the following:

Obtain 24/7 brochure (PDF 1.5MB)
Case Study (PDF 224KB)
Presentation - Powerful Asset and Connectivity Management Software for Enterprise Data Centers (PPS 2.2MB)