Infrastructure management is changing the complex data center environments

BOULDER, USA: In today's market, mere minutes of data center downtime can cost businesses millions of dollars in lost revenue. This criticality has created an atmosphere of risk aversion in data center operations, along with a culture of uncontrolled and uninformed spending on assets and resources to ensure an acceptable, albeit hazy, margin of reliability.

According to a recent report from Navigant Research, these days are coming to an end. Data center infrastructure management (DCIM) systems are fundamentally changing the landscape for managing complex data center environments.

"DCIM - the software, systems, and services that monitor, measure, and help control data centers' IT and facilities infrastructure - is quickly becoming a must-have technology for managers of modern data centers," says Eric Woods, research director with Navigant Research.

"The need for data centers to improve their energy efficiency while meeting an ever-growing demand for IT capacity will drive annual spending on DCIM software and services from less than $700 million in 2013 to more than $4.5 billion by 2020."

The DCIM vendor landscape is as diverse as the technology itself, according to the report. The resources and brand recognition of large end-to-end software, hardware, and service providers, such as Schneider Electric, Emerson Network Power, and Raritan, give them an immediate advantage over competitors.

But smaller software-centric companies, such as Cormant, Modius, iTRACS, NetApp, FieldView Solutions, and Future Facilities, also provide unique and competitive solutions.