The first decade of the 21st century was one of rapid growth and change for data centers. For most of the decade, data center managers were forced to react to rapid, continuous changes dictated by the capacity and availability requirements of their organizations, and the density of the equipment being deployed to meet those requirements.
Now, data centers must enter a new stage of maturity marked by a more proactive approach to management to enable increased efficiency, better planning and higher levels of service. Achieving actionable visibility into data center operations requires the ability to collect, consolidate and analyze data across the data center, using advanced devices, sensors and management software.
Below are ten steps that provide a systematic approach to building the foundation for data center infrastructure management by deploying and leveraging measurement, intelligent controls and centralized monitoring and management. Data centers employing these 10 prescribed point solutions for infrastructure performance monitoring stand to gain an operational, strategic and transformative advantage for their enterprise or business.
Through these 10 steps, data center managers can automatically collect data from infrastructure systems and sensors placed strategically within the physical space and use this data to gain higher availability, increase efficiency, enhance the value of virtualization and consolidation efforts and improve planning.

1. Sensing temperatures
2. Monitoring power
3. Monitoring rack conditions
4. Detecting fluid leaks
5. Intelligent control of precision cooling
6. Intelligent control of critical power
7. Managing alerts and alarms
8. Monitoring energy efficiency
9. Monitoring batteries
10. Monitoring and managing remotely

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM). Once properly deployed, a comprehensive DCIM solution provides data center operations managers with clear visibility of all data center assets along with their connectivity and relationships to support infrastructure – networks, copper and fiber cable plants, power chains and cooling systems.

DCIM tools provide data center operations managers with the ability to identify, locate, visualize and manage all physical data center assets, simply provision new equipment and confidently plan capacity for future growth and/or consolidation. These tools can also help control energy costs and increase operational efficiency.

Gartner has predicted that DCIM tools will soon become the mainstream in data centers, growing from 1% penetration in 2010 to 60% in 2014.

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