Data centers and IT infrastructure continue to evolve at a rapid pace in response to increased connectivity and digital transformation. The rapid evolution of hybrid IT including data centers, cloud and edge computing installations, is driving the need to monitor and manage a more complex and evolving data center infrastructure. DCIM was created to meet this need with sophisticated software used to monitor, measure, and manage data centers and IT equipment as well as support infrastructure such as power and cooling systems. DCIM software has evolved and improved through the years to respond to the rapid growth of data usage and the server consolidation that occurred within data centers. Important features were added to facilitate factors such as IT space planning, as well as power and cooling requirements. Concerns about data center efficiency spawned a new metric in the form of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) that expanded the capabilities of DCIM from a monitoring and management tool to include planning and modeling.
