Nlyte DCIM

Pros

Nlyte provides a comprehensive source to help me answer all of the questions that customers ask involving data center services. Mundane asset information is easily searchable, while diagrams and pictures are immediately available to facilitate descriptions to customers who may never actually set foot in the data center. Nlyte is a resources that has improved the communication of my enterprise for every person that needs to know anything about physical hardware to get a task done.

Cons

Loading the data that Nlyte will use is a significant undertaking. While Nlyte provides this as a service, security concerns kept my enterprise from taking advantage. At least 1200 hundred man-hours were spent to load the information from 10,000 assets, just to give an idea of the scope of implementing this solution.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Nlyte DCIM

Reasons for Switching to Nlyte DCIM

Pros

once acclimated, you can see through the various tables how your hosting center is built from a micro level. Power from the Utility down to the switched outlet with audit trails, to all the interdependencies of the loaded software, data connections and management with move plan-o-grams to give the techs.

Cons

As with most of these applications it is very cerebral in being able to visualize your environment in the forms presented, initial user training is a real paradigm shift for those who don't live in the cabinets. If it had a graphical drag and drop creation methodology that would help a lot toward user intuitiveness of operation. Wish list? direct DWG import for rooms would be nice.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Nlyte DCIM

Reasons for Switching to Nlyte DCIM

Pros

Very customizable, however you have to customize about everything. Nice idea for a product, but poorly implemented, worsely supported and highly over priced

Cons

Support has a slow response time. Everything has to be customized and support is not much help. Manuals are poorly written. If you have a problem, they might call it a feature request and it will never get looked at again. If you see something in their demos, it will probably cost another 50k. They like to charge and overcharge for everything. If you make the mistake of buying this product, you will need an internal team to support it for all the "tweaking" and verifying that will need to be done to actually use the product. Highly NOT recommended

Pros

The ease of visualizing our data center assets to customers and administrators offsite, and tracking our cabling configuration between the assets.

Cons

Either there’s no ability to open a new service request through Nlyte directly from the asset page, or it’s not intuitive to see how that could be enabled.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Nlyte DCIM

Reasons for Switching to Nlyte DCIM

Pros

I have been a Nlyte customer for over 5 years and I am using it's asset management and environmental monitoring tools (NAO & NEO). I have both integrated into my CMBD allowing me to pass CI data and providing updated records for ticket resolution. I like the easy of use related to customizing the applications. I also find the support to be very responsive and knowledgeable.

Cons

Would like to see easier integration related to API configuration. I have seen other apps and they also have the same challenge.

Pros

We are currently using this DCIM tool in multiple Data Centers and there are many more feature than we need. NAO Asset Management is great for knowing where devices are located so that we can respond quickly if there is an issue.

Cons

There is a lot of data needed to set up this tool. You need to have up to date accurate asset and physical site information and you need to be very detailed. We did have some difficulty finding the time setting this up as it is time consuming to do so. I would recommend having Nlyte come out and do it for you.

Pros

Scope and completeness of feature coverage

Cons

Too often instructions and tips are written from the point of view of personnel very familiar with the inner working and technology behind the product. This shows up as acronyms not explained, or inconsistency in terminology usage. A terminology analogy would be to be directed to click on a button named "James" but finding only buttons named "Jim" and "Joe". This happens too often in many places other than Nlyte. as well. The user interface must be written from the point of view of a naive first time user. This is the most rapid path to User product acceptance.

Pros

The ability to manage our own implementation and make additions and changes without outside help is a big selling point. As a colo facility our environment is constantly changing and the flexibility of this software makes a big difference for us.

Cons

I would like to see more training and/or ability to create custom reporting.

Pros

Main page search feature. Integrates with our ticketing/CMDB tool

Cons

Conversion was very painful. Some data was not populated correctly, other data was dropped.

Pros

I like how I am able to modify a lot of areas to fit my needs

Cons

I wish there was more that I can modify, for example I would like to be able to change the titles of fields, I would like to be able to change the shape of the tiles, I would like to create custom dashboards that would appear IN nlyte, so that people didn't have to go somewhere else to see the dashboard, and I wish I could create multiple assets at one time, especially if they are all the same material.

Pros

Nlyte gives administrators the ability to update changes in bulk, allowing for large datasets to be created in minutes or hours rather than days or weeks. I was able to map the power chain (UPS-Generator-PDU-Panel-beakers-circuits-receptacles-rack power strips) for a large data center in about an hour. Global data center migrations are now much easier than before, when spreadsheets were the norm.

Cons

I'd like to see better integration between the NAO and NEO GUIs. If it were one seamless GUI, and the NEO monitoring functions were more intuitive, that would be a huge win. NEO can be a daunting GUI to get working correctly.

Pros

Using the search function is easy, and allows you to quickly move assets around. The visualization/power monitoring are useful for planning and allow users to quickly identify gaps in their respective programs

Cons

Steep learning curve if no experience with DCIM. The initial set-up is a bit confusing and should be a streamlined as possible. Need a better bulk update system along with reporting

Pros

it can track EVERYTHING and can show it to you graphically, devices, servers, racks, environmental controls, power, networking.

Cons

i wish there were a home version i could get.

Pros

We had no previous DC management tool in use and were completely relying over complex excel sheet management. With transforming DC management through Nlyte we reached a simple, easy and accurate data management. Out of many, the most impressive feature I found is Nlyte Asset Optimizer (NAO) that makes asset lifecycle management very efficient.

Cons

3D view edit lock button is something our users usually and repeatedly miss. I wish there is a different presentation for users to know when they can and when they cannot edit it.

Pros

The ability to see a rack configuration is key. You can view the individual components of a storage shelf. You can also view the attributes of each component

Cons

There were some issue when we attempted to export data from Nlyte to an excel document.

Pros

I am quite happy with the nlyte product, even if to use it at its best, there is an need for an efficient organization of people who keep everything up to date.

Cons

I wish it was faster in its use and a little more "smart"

Pros

Service Now / CMDB, and Power management

Cons

Nothing - Complete end 2 end DCIM product

Pros

Although the product is more complicated, but its easy to use. We still need to use all of the features but for now it has helped us a lot in maintaining the database of equipment we have in the data center.

Cons

Bulk loading is still complicated and need to be improved making it more user friendly. Network connections are major part of the DC, can this be made more simple.

Pros

Bulk Data manager is a great feature as well as cabinet planner.

Cons

Could be little difficult for new users.

Pros

It is easy to use with intuitive installation and graphics.

Cons

I would like too see integration with PLCs and SCADA for better use.

Pros

Fast and responsive. Easy to understand and use.

Cons

Requires quite a lot manpower initially to get most of the software .

Pros

ease of use and installation. it was a lot easier than expected

Cons

it's pretty comprehensive but could use some more detailed options

Pros

Ease of defining devices, integrating devices, keeping visual representation of different performance aspects of data center site

Cons

everything is good just takes time to get used to it.