The Top 5 Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Solutions

Device42 is an asset management and IT discovery platform capable of producing detailed insights into complex IT enterprises spanning physical, digital, cloud, and storage resources. With DCIM capabilities, it offers users an intelligent visualization of their IT environment, replacing traditional manual drawings and spreadsheet records.

Device42 offers various features that support users in effectively mapping data center layouts, and viewing buildings, rooms, and individual racks visually. The solution handles a wide spectrum of tasks, from managing structure cabling to visualizing IT patch panel connections, using user-friendly interfaces or APIs. It provides color-coded diagrams for a clearer planning process and tangible heat maps for at-a-glance availability. With Device42, data center energy management is simplified while enhancing your capacity planning efficiency. It supports centralized power control, color heat maps at room and rack level, and charts displaying historical power data for predictive modeling.

Device42 provides real-time and historical thermal management data and visualization, aimed at augmenting server performance and reliability while mitigating risk. The platform also offers auto-discovery tools for network, physical, or virtual infrastructures, including powerful REST APIs for integration with other tools and maintaining accurate data center documentation.

Hyperview is a cloud-based DCIM platform that consolidates and promotes streamlined operations within contemporary data centers. The platform’s purpose is to help businesses to administer their data center assets, curtail energy usage, minimize operational interruptions and, overall, boost performance.

Users of Hyperview can identify and monitor their assets including IT devices, sensors, operational technology, and virtual machines. The platform provides customizable dashboard options with the inclusion of widgets and charts for comprehensive insights. Hyperview offers innovative 3D data center visualization, displaying color-coded asset alarm statuses and lifecycle states in-rack. The ability to monitor energy consumption in real-time through key metrics such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) facilitates better efficiency and cost-saving measures. Lifecycle management is simplified and enhanced with tracking capabilities for each asset from procurement to retirement. The platform also supports seamless integration with IT Service Management (ITSM) tools, IT Asset Management (ITAM) tools, Configuration Management Databases (CMDB), Building Management Systems (BMS) and other systems via its open, well-documented REST APIs.

As a cloud-native platform, Hyperview underscores privacy, scalability, and performance, and provides real-time updates and scalable on-demand access directly from your web browser. For data protection, it employs end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication while offering fine-grained access control.

NetBox Cloud is NetBox Labs’ hosted DCIM solution that provides distinct service and performance guarantees and business support. The platform is designed to alleviate the administrative tasks associated with hosting and managing NetBox instances.

NetBox Cloud is a secure and stable platform that allows its users to focus on enhancing their networks. It gives control to users to add, change, or remove infrastructure components according to their needs. This platform provides visibility into critical assets and their connectivity, thereby offering real-time views of your network. NetBox Cloud also guarantees reliability as it minimizes downtime linked to manual errors. It provides a comprehensive view of every physical infrastructure component in your network, reducing help desk tickets and administrative tasks. The flexible nature of NetBox allows for easy integration with many automation platforms thanks to its well-documented APIs, preventing the users from getting locked into proprietary tooling.

Among the vast range of components that NetBox Cloud can document, notable are sites, racks, hardware (rack-mounted devices), cabling, modules (device-installable components), circuits, wireless LANs, groups, and links, as well as power panels and feeds. Also, it allows error-free provision of full device configurations natively, negating the need for other tools.

Nlyte Software, an organization under Carrier Company, offers a DCIM solution that facilitates the management of hybrid infrastructures across an entire organization. The solution helps organizations to raise the value of individual assets, provide efficient operating conditions, improve space management and coordinate equipment addition. This extends from desktops, networks and servers to IoT devices; coverage includes facilities, data centers, edge computing, colocation and the cloud.

Nlyte DCIM consistently monitors system utilization at different levels, enabling accurate and continuous oversight that helps businesses to identify underutilized servers and increase utilization rates. Through its integration with Nlyte Asset Optimizer, the software also helps teams to meet DCOI Server Utilization objectives and streamline capacity planning processes, ensuring swift navigation to asset and host cabinet pages. Its capacity planning and space usability tools can be accessed through a single interface, via which users can also access dashboard visualizations for ongoing server utilization tracking, helping to monitor costs.

Finally, Nlyte offers hardware management tools. The platform’s change management feature facilitates hardware updates with minimum downtime, and it helps oprganizations optimize their hardware by balancing loads and issuing alerts exceeding thresholds.

Sunbird Software is a prominent figure in the field of data center management. The company provides solutions that enhance efficiency, decrease costs, and improve availability, while also addressing real-world customer issues and user scenarios.

Sunbird’s flagship DCIM solution offers a spectrum of functionalities. The Asset module effectively tracks all assets across global data centers, while the Capacity feature provides swift analysis of space, power, network connectivity, and cooling capacity. For management of change requests and work orders, the Change tool validates and reports changes accurately. The Energy feature contributes to enhancing energy efficiency, reducing costs, and implementing energy-saving initiatives. The software also provides intelligent monitoring through its Environment module to help maintain the healthy conditions of data centers. Power and Visualization features reduce downtime and allow for comprehensive power monitoring alongside 3D representations of the data center floor respectively.

The solution also explores zero-configuration dashboards and visual analytics through the BI & Analytics feature, and manages power and network connectivity with visual trace routes, cable measurements, and port connectivity under its Connectivity tool. The combined capabilities make Sunbird a comprehensive data center management platform.