StruxureOn for DCE or EcoStruxure IT Gateway for DCE

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This question was originally posted on DCIM Support by Marcello Migliore on 2018-08-25

What ist the difference in using StruxureOn for DCE or EcoStruxure IT Gateway for DCE? Do I get more benefit installing the gateway?

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This answer was originally posted on DCIM Support by spezialist on 2018-08-25

Dear Marcello Migliore,

As I mentioned in topic , my organization uses EcoStruxure IT digital service for years:

My company uses Schneider Electric's digital service EcoStruxure IT (early RemoteOn, then StruxureOn) for the third year already 😀.

Before the official release this summer, it was a single digital service of this kind from Schneider Electric. But after the official release, the digital service now represents two separate digital services that are different. These differences can be seen on the official website https://ecostruxureit.com/.

EcoStruxure IT Expert - this digital service works only with free EcoStruxure IT Gateway software. Here is an example of a screenshot if you have a DCE server connected instead of a gateway:

The advantage of this digital service is its simplicity and quick of deployment for the end customer. Of the money costs, you will only have expenses of $60/USD/device/year (is the suggested retail price) and that's it 😀. As a result, you will receive a monitoring system, that is accessible to you both through a web-browser and through a special EcoStruxure IT mobile application.

You will also always be aware of the critical alarms and warnings from your devices (but without real time notification – see my detailed answer ). And managing/resolving these alarms is the concern of your organization, i.e. this is your concern. In addition, like DCE software, free gateway software also allows you to create custom alarms, but their functionality is unfortunately significantly inferior to DCE software.

The disadvantages of this digital service based on free gateway software is in my opinion two, but significant.

At first – free gateway software still very little supports 3rd party devices. For example, I have not yet been able to connect all air conditioners, generators, power meters and many other 3rd party equipment to the digital service. In addition, even some native equipment Schneider Electric is connected with restrictions. For example, using NetBotz devices and free gateway software, you can monitor only temperature/humidity sensors, but not dry contacts, for example.

Secondly – a real time notification for this digital service is not available at all (see my detailed answer ).

EcoStruxure Asset Advisor – this digital service is like a continuation of the previous digital service, and there are no above mentioned disadvantages. This is very good 😀, i.e. you can connect standard DCE software, with all your custom alarms, settings, 3rd party devices and so on. You will have real time notifications, incident tracking (for premium upgraded devices) and 24/7 support of Schneider Electric experts.

The disadvantages - probably the price of the service, i.e. at least $365/USD/device/year. In addition, do not forget that you also need to pay for DCE software/appliance, for device licenses and for its technical support and technical support of your native Schneider Electric devices...

If you have any further questions, please ask.

With respect.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by spezialist on 2018-09-04

Dear Marcello Migliore,

Tell us, please, have you solved this question or not?

With respect.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This answer was originally posted on DCIM Support by Ryan Harriman on 2018-09-04

Hello Marcello,

Thanks for the question. Let me try to add some clarity around our offer and the previous comment.

StruxureWare Data Center Expert and StruxureWare Data Center Operation are our on premise monitoring and management platforms respectively. We enabled Data Center Expert to connect to our cloud platform so it could act as an aggregator for our remote monitoring service which at the time was called StruxureOn.

As our analytics capabilities improved we wanted our monitoring, remote monitoring and management solutions to take advantage of these benefits thus re-platforming them and changing the name to Ecostruxure. The Ecostruxure IT Gateway pulls more data from the devices and does so in a more uniform manner which enables us to perform the data analysis needed to gain deeper insights into the behavior of the critical infrastructure.

Ecostruxure IT Expert is the cloud enabled monitoring and analytics platform which requires the improved polling capabilities of the gateway. Ecostruxure Asset Advisor is our cloud enabled remote monitoring service and Ecostruxure IT Advisor is our hosted management solution.

Currently the gateway ships with the same on board device support as Data Center Expert and we are continually adding device support to the gateway. The gateway supports the same protocols and remains vendor agnostic. If you have a custom DDF for DCE you will most likely need to request that DDF be migrated to the gateway. This process takes roughly 2 weeks.

Both the Gateway and Data Center Expert have a polling interval. DCE polls between a configurable 1 and 5 minutes while the gateway polls at 5 minutes. The gateway does not have notification capabilities, instead these notifications will appear within the mobile app or web app. For APC devices specifically when a device enters an alert state a trap is sent to the gateway prompting a poll for the current conditions. This poll happens immediately and the resulting information is sent to the Ecostruxure platform. For third party devices we pick up the alarm during the next polling cycle which could result in a 5 minute delay. If a custom threshold on the gateway is breached there is no need to poll the device and the alert is sent to the Ecostruxure platform immediately. The response rate is very similar to that of DCE as it uses the same mechanism.

As mentioned in the previous comment for the Netbotz 200 series we are experiencing a bug with dry contacts which we are addressing. Surveillance will be supported in a future release.

For more information on our Ecostruxure offers please visit

https://ecostruxureit.com/all-solutions/

For up to date pricing I encourage you to look here

https://ecostruxureit.com/how-to-buy/

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by spezialist on 2018-09-05

Dear Ryan Harriman,

Thank you for your reply, but as a representative of end customers, I want to note the following.

From your answer:

If you have a custom DDF for DCE you will most likely need to request that DDF be migrated to the gateway. This process takes roughly 2 weeks.

In fact, this process lasts longer and longer ☹️. For example, below are my support requests for some 3rd party devices with DCE software DDF-files attached by the new gateway software:

Look carefully at the dates of requests, and you will become clear...

From your answer:

As mentioned in the previous comment for the Netbotz 200 series we are experiencing a bug with dry contacts which we are addressing. Surveillance will be supported in a future release.

This problem also lasts longer and longer, see for example the topics and .

I think it will be superfluous to remind, that because of both of the above problems, it becomes absolutely impossible to migrate end customers with existing equipment to the new gateway software, that is, to the new digital service EcoStruxure IT Expert. This is important to understand, since end customers lose critical information from part of their already functioning equipment...

With respect.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Brian Behbehani on 2018-09-05

Hi spezialist,

Our DDF response times have been longer and inconsistent as of late, which we are working hard to improve. With regard to your specific requests, we'll come back to you with an ETA on them by the end of this week.

Thank you for your patience,

Brian Behbehani

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by spezialist on 2018-09-05

Ok, in any case, thanks for the feedback.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Brian Behbehani on 2018-09-06

Hi spezialist,

To follow up, we've looked into your requests and will be beginning work on them next week. We'll reach out to you directly on the specific requests as we develop and test each, to verify with you that they are completed correctly. We are planning for all of these DDFs to be included in the 1.4.1 update, planned for release by the end of September.

Thanks,

Brian Behbehani

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by spezialist on 2018-09-06

Dear Brian Behbehani,

Well, I'll wait for a new version of the gateway software to test on real hardware.

Very thanks for the support.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-04

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