Technology Team values the opportunity to collaborate with our partners in sharing beneficial information with our readers. This month we are honored to introduce Jim Ferguson with DataSpan as our guest E-News author. DataSpan's RFID Technology is a highly effective tool in an Asset Protection Program and is a vital resource in an IT Asset Management Program.

Technology Team provides experienced consulting in developing business specific IT Asset Management (ITAM) programs. As an introduction to our ITAM services, we are pleased to offer a complementary white paper, Information Technology Asset Management: Control and Compliance.

Technology Team will consult and work with your IT department to enable your organization to efficiently manage your IT Asset portfolio. We look forward to being your source for ITAM solutions.

Sincerely President Technology Team, LLC P.S. If you have interest in this service, or feedback about this subject please  If this eNewsletter may benefit a colleague of yours, please forward to them.

Presented by Jim Ferguson, RFID Projects, DataSpan

RFID APPLICATIONS IN THE DATA CENTER

Are you considering using RFID in your data center? If so, you have plenty of company. Data center managers around the US are evaluating, purchasing and installing RFID solutions in two primary areas: data tape tracking and IT asset inventory management. We’ll first look at data tape tracking.

RFID Based Data Tape Tracking

For years, most data tape managers have used the bar code based Volser tape label standard to help identify and manage their tape libraries. While a reliable read technology, bar code has its drawbacks when used as a data collection tool on data tapes.

• Slow read rates: A handheld bar code scanner is "line-of-sight dependent". It must see each bar code one-at-a-time in order to properly identify its unique series of bars and spaces. Even a skilled scanner operator will need up to 3 seconds per tape to successfully capture a Volser number. This is the reason that few tape libraries are 100% inventoried on a regular basis. This process often takes too long and is too costly.
• Reduced shipping/storage security: Standard Volser labeled tapes cannot be read once placed inside a closed and secured transport case. Cases must be opened to verify bar coded contents. Security is compromised and new human errors are introduced when tape transport cases must be opened in order to maintain a proper chain-of-custody.
• Locating lost or misplaced tapes: Finding a misplaced tape amidst thousands of tapes in a library is next to impossible when all you have to ID that specific tape is the bar coded or human readable portion of the Volser label to work with.

Now, Volser labels also have advanced UHF (Ultra High Frequency) Gen 2 technology incorporated into each label. As a result of this latest improvement, RFID enabled Volser labels can be read at long distances that are not possible using a bar code based solution. An RFID scanner can "see" up to 20 cartridges inside a closed, locked plastic transport container. Tapes can be prepared for off-site storage in a fraction of the time previously required. Complete, partial or ad hoc tape audits can be quickly performed, misplaced tapes located and every cartridge efficiently tracked as never before.

RFID enabled tape labels are available in standard tape formats and can be affixed to new tapes as they are purchased or retrofitted into existing tape libraries.

RFID Based IT Asset Tracking

Data center IT asset tracking and management is also an application that is well suited to RFID technology.

A significant portion of the corporate balance sheet is invested in critical data center IT assets such as servers, racks, mechanicals and other infrastructure units. Like the data tape application discussed above, IT assets have been historically tagged and inventoried using a combination of bar code and manual audit techniques.

Data center asset inventory events include movement between racks, data centers or decommissioning. In addition, new data center assets are routinely being installed into the data center environment. Updating these events via bar code or manual input to maintain inventory control can be very slow and inaccurate. Asset movement is missed or inaccurately recorded. Full end-to-end audits are infrequently accomplished and are not accurate upon completion. Knowing where critical data center assets are located and tracing their movement becomes time consuming and results in inaccurate accounting records that could reach unacceptable levels in this era of tight budgets.

Everyone must have enjoyed last month’s question: "What goes around the world but stays in a corner?"

Answer: The correct answer is a postage stamp.

We had so many correct answers that we had to have a drawing for the lucky winner! Our trivia winner is Vanessa Lang of Merchant Services, Inc.

Since everyone seemed to enjoy the riddle, we thought we would ask another as this month’s trivia question.

This month's question- “What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?”

Submit the correct answer for a chance to win a Starbucks’s gift card!