Data center infrastructure management

(DCIM) is a category of solutions which were created to extend the traditional data center management function to include all of the physical assets and resources found in the Facilities and IT domains. DCIM deployments over time will integrate information technology (IT) and facility management disciplines to centralize monitoring, management and intelligent capacity planning of a data center's critical systems. Since DCIM is a broadly used term which covers a wide range of data center management values, each deployment will include a subset of the full DCIM value needed and expected over time.

Full DCIM deployments will involve specialized software, hardware and sensors. With more than 75 vendors in 2014 self-identifying their offerings to be part of the DCIM market segment, the rapid evolution of the DCIM category is leading to the creation of many associated data center performance management and measurement metrics, including industry standard metrics like PUE, CUE and DCeP – Data Center Energy Productivity as well as vendor-driven metrics such as PAR4 - Server Power Usage and DCPM – Data Center Predictive Modeling with the intention of providing increasingly cost-effective planning and operations support for certain aspects of the data center and its contained devices.

Since its identification as a missing component for optimized data center management, the broad DCIM category has been flooded with a wide range of point-solutions and hardware-vendor offerings intended to address this void. The analyst firm Gartner Research has started using a term to try and focus on DCIM vendors with a more comprehensive set of capabilities. DCIM Suite vendors number less than two dozen in 2014, and consist of software offering which are wide-ranging and integrated in nature. The existing suites touch upon both IT and Facilities and depending upon the vendor's heritage, may have a bias towards either 1) IT asset lifecycle management or 2) facilities monitoring and access. It is likely that for an extended period of time, the DCIM Suites that exist will continue to have their core strength in one discipline or the other, but not equally addressing both. Important to note is that there are dozens of other vendors whose technologies directly support or enhance the DCIM suites. In general, these specialists' offerings can also be used as viable stand-lone solution to a specific set of data center management needs. In the forth quarter of 2014, Gartner released their Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities reports which are the first tangible approach to a quantitative comparison of the values each vendor has to offer. The Magic Quadrant focused on 17 vendors, while the Critical Capabilities report examined just 7 that they considered broad enough to compare.