Data Center Infrastructure Management
What is Second-Generation DCIM?
Software for Data Center Infrastructure Management
Key Benefits of DCIM
DCIM software gives data centre operators a single source of truth across space, power, cooling, and connectivity — replacing spreadsheets and guesswork with real-time data.
Improve Uptime
Constantly monitoring critical facilities infrastructure, DCIM polls equipment, trends data, and alerts on threshold violations — so you can react before failures impact users and services.
Optimise Capacity Planning
Quickly model and allocate space for new servers and racks. Manage relationships between IT equipment and critical facilities infrastructure in a few clicks with power and network connectivity diagrams.
Increase Energy Efficiency
Automatically collect data from building feeds, IT loads, and non-IT loads for real-time PUE calculation and trending across all your data centres to drive corporate energy efficiency initiatives.
Improve People Productivity
Reservations, moves, adds, and changes are easily accomplished through fully integrated and automated workflow management. Audit trails dramatically increase employee productivity and morale.
A New Way to Manage Your Data Centre
Ad-hoc data centre management tools may work for a specific point task, but often they do not work together to resolve common and complex issues — such as figuring out where capacity exists for new servers, finding stranded power, or having a clear picture of what assets you have.
DCIM software provides operations managers with the ability to identify, locate, visualise, and manage all physical data centre assets — quickly provision new equipment, and confidently plan capacity for future growth.
DCIM tools also help control energy costs, improve data centre design, and increase operational efficiency — delivering significant cost savings today and into the future.
What Are the Components of DCIM?
A comprehensive DCIM solution provides accurate, meaningful information about your data centre’s assets, resources, and operational status — from the lowest level in the power chain to the highest — in an integrated, real-time view.
Enterprise-Class Monitoring
Monitor tens of thousands of nodes across multiple data centres — Intelligent Rack PDUs, UPS, CRACs, RPPs, environmental sensors, and more. Supports SNMP, ModBus, and BacNet.
Complete Asset Inventory
Full inventory of racks, servers, storage, and network equipment including power chain, network connectivity, and application relationships — mapped down to the physical port level.
Multiple Ways to Visualise Data
Drill up or down with a few clicks — dashboards, trend charts, floor layout plans, rack elevations, colour-coded status, and high-resolution front/back equipment diagrams.
Change & Workflow Management
Systematic workflows for modelling, planning, ticketing, approvals, and auditing. Track all work items and changes across one or multiple data centres with full role-based access control.
Power Chain & Physical Connectivity
Track all physical connectivity across the entire power chain and cable/data network. Built-in rules automatically validate connectivity prior to provisioning of new equipment.
Comprehensive Models Library
Over 37,000 Smart Models across 450+ manufacturers — 13 categories of physical media, 10 protocols, 25+ network speeds, and 250+ connectors — updated continuously.
What Problems Does DCIM Solve?
Asset Management
How is it configured and connected?
Where is it located?
Who owns it?
What’s the maintenance on it?
Capacity Management
When do I run out?
How can I budget it?
Where can I put stuff?
How do I better utilize it?
Change Management
What is the impact?
Who does the work?
When is the work done?
How do I know it’s done?
Energy Management
What is the cost of it?
Who’s using it?
Who is meeting their saving goals?
What can I bill back?
Visualization
Can rack elevations be automatically updated so I no longer need to update Visio?
How can I visualize power, temperature, and humidity sensor readings across my data center floor at a glance?
Power Monitoring
How much is available?
How do I ensure uptime and reliability?
How can I accommodate high density?
Environmental Monitoring
Am I overcooling my data center?
Can I use free cooling?
How do I maintain a safe environment for IT equipment?
Security
How can we control who has access to cabinets and cages?
How can we track and audit who was in a cabinet?
How can I restrict access to users or tenants through role-based permissions?
BI & Analytics
How can I track KPIs most important to my organization?
How can I share my dashboards and reports with my management and team?
Connectivity
How can I easily know physical port capacity?
How can I easily document structured cabling?
How can I visualize copper and fiber cabling and cable trays across my entire data center floor?
Before and After DCIM — A Direct Comparison
Without DCIM, data centre managers rely on spreadsheets, manual walkthroughs, and disconnected systems. The operational impact is significant — and entirely avoidable.
| Area | Before DCIM | With DCIM |
|---|---|---|
| Asset Management | Spreadsheets or homegrown tools; staff must physically visit the data centre to check space and equipment position; records are inaccurate and incomplete. | Instant visual and textual information on all equipment; no need to send staff on-site; centralised database with accurate records and enforced processes. |
| Capacity Management | Information scattered across multiple systems with no integration; capacity planning is slow and error-prone. | Quickly model and allocate space for new servers; manage power and network connectivity in a single unified view. |
| Change Management | Delays in processing work orders; no way to ensure processes are followed or audited. | Fully integrated workflow management with automation of work orders, approvals, process assurance, tracking, and complete audit trails. |
| Power Monitoring | Proprietary monitoring systems or manual sneakernet readings; stranded capacity goes undetected until a circuit fails. | Constant monitoring with alerts before circuits fail; locate stranded power capacity to avoid costly and premature build-outs. |
| Environmental Monitoring | Wasted cooling capacity; unknown hot spots; overcooling without knowing it. | Hot spot identification with thresholds and alerts; clear insight into cooling efficiency to eliminate waste and protect equipment. |
| Energy Management | Energy data siloed across multiple systems; no ability to calculate PUE or identify savings opportunities. | Intelligent PUE analytics and reporting tools provide management decision support, cost allocation, and chargeback capabilities. |
Sunbird DCIM Software Solutions
dcTrack®
