Author: Patrick Donovan

Patrick Donovan is a Senior Research Analyst for the Data Center Science Center at Schneider Electric. He has over 20 years of experience developing and supporting critical power and cooling systems for Schneider Electric’s IT Business unit including several award-winning power protection, efficiency and availability solutions. An author of numerous white papers, industry articles, and technology assessments, Patrick's research on data center physical infrastructure technologies and markets offers guidance and advice on best practices for planning, designing, and operation of data center facilities.

Apr 05 / By Patrick Donovan

How CIOs can address IT infrastructure sustainability with DCIM software

Measuring, reporting, and managing a company’s sustainability performance is starting to drive employee retention, boost corporate reputation, and contribute to business success. Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) will report environmental sustainability metrics for the entire enterprise…. Read Article »

Mar 23 / By Patrick Donovan

Justify Your DCIM Monitoring Software with Our Simple Tool

It may be obvious to any IT Operations manager that monitoring software is necessary when you’re tasked with keeping tabs on all the power and cooling infrastructure across your (likely) geographically distributed IT portfolio. The… Read Article »

Jan 26 / By Patrick Donovan

Modern DCIM’s Role in Helping to Ensure CIO Success

It is widely reported[1],[2] that the role of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) is experiencing a sea change. IT is now at the center of business strategy as digital technologies power and sustain the global… Read Article »

Jul 22 / By Patrick Donovan

Choosing Better DCIM Tools for Edge Computing and other Distributed, Hybrid IT Environments

I think it’s safe to say that most businesses that used to own and operate centralized data centers now have physical IT infrastructure assets widely distributed on premise, at colocation providers, and increasingly at the… Read Article »

Jun 14 / By Patrick Donovan

4 Cybersecurity Best Practices for Edge Computing

Incidents of cyber-attacks against IT networks are intensifying globally. The recent spate of ransomware attacks on the American oil pipeline system and the global meat supply chain highlights both the vulnerabilities that exist in our… Read Article »

Mar 02 / By Patrick Donovan

Three BIG Tips on Using DCIM to Manage Edge Computing Sites

The lack of staff or “lights out” nature of many local IT and mobile edge computing (MEC) sites makes operations & maintenance of the supporting IT infrastructure a challenge. This struggle worsens as the number… Read Article »

Oct 11 / By Patrick Donovan

Successful Edge Computing Deployments in the New World of “Compute Everywhere”

It was not long ago when there was a pervasive feeling that everything was moving to the Cloud, an unstoppable, inevitable flow of on-premise IT capacity towards huge, highly centralized service provider data centers. But… Read Article »

May 28 / By Patrick Donovan

Edge computing Integrated Ecosystem – “It Takes a Village” to Deploy & Manage IT at the Edge

Configuring, deploying, and maintaining the supporting infrastructure for IT equipment is tough enough. Doing all of this for multiple, geographically-dispersed sites without local trained staff makes it even harder. How can you ease the burden,… Read Article »

Feb 06 / By Patrick Donovan

NRF 2019: 4 Thoughts on Edge Computing Infrastructure in the Retail Sector

The National Retail Federation’s 2019 conference at the Javits Center in NYC is the largest retail tradeshow in the U.S. with over 37,000 attendees, 1,500 participating retail chains, and more than 600 technology exhibitors. “Brick… Read Article »