Intel: Data Center Infrastructure Management Key to Energy, Other Savings

An Intel white paper maintains that data center infrastructure management (DCIM) can provide valuable information, identify problems and help create a deeper understanding of (and find solutions for) outages and other problems. The paper, which was conducted  for Intel by Redshift Research, is based on a survey of 200 data center managers across the U.S. and the U.K.

The paper suggests that energy is one of the most important areas of a healthy DCIM program. Indeed, in 2013 data centers consumed as much energy as all the households in New York City – twice over.  The survey found that 63 percent of data center managers use DCIM analytics to find ways to optimize cooling efficiency.

The research found that those that don’t use DCIM tools are less likely to conduct hotspot or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) audits. Audits, the paper says, can be a good way to double check other methods. However, 7 percent rely on them exclusively for temperature monitoring. Redshift and Intel found that problems are not rare: 57 percent of data centers reported having experienced thermal challenges that impacted operational efficiency, the paper says.

Navigant Research this week took a look at the data center energy management market. The firm found that it is expected to grow from $46.9 million in 2015 to $119.7 million in 2024.