How Vendors Can Address Cost, Changing IT Needs in Data Center Infrastructure Management Market

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Market research company, Technavio, has released an industry report on the data center infrastructure management (DCIM) market. The DCIM market will reach $8.88 billion from 2021 to 2026 at a double-digit CAGR of 24.54%.

The key growth driver for the market is the focus on efficient energy management and green initiatives. Organizations are implementing solutions that can help them reduce the energy consumption of high-density devices. They are also focusing on renewable energy sources to run their data centers.

DCIM solutions such as software and IoT devices help measure the energy consumption of data centers. They also monitor the overall energy distribution across networks, racks, and servers in a data center.

Adoption of IoT, In-built Sensors, and Edge Computing

Data centers are vital to the daily operations of IT departments and companies that maintain their own IT systems. However, they are also among the highest consumers of electrical power.

According to the International Energy Agency, data centers will consume 1/5 of the world’s power supply by 2025. The energy demand comes from powering servers but these servers also produce heat. That’s why data centers use HVAC systems to cool their servers. Other aspects of data centers that demand energy are security and lighting for buildings.

Data centers have been implementing various solutions to address high energy consumption. For example, instead of relying solely on HVAC systems, enterprises design data center servers that can receive outside air for cooling. Some also implement closed cold corridors and ultrasonic humidification processes to reduce the energy consumption of their data centers.

On top of these strategies, new trends are also emerging. Based on the report, enterprises are adopting IoT, in-built sensors, and edge computing to improve energy monitoring and management of data center equipment. IoT devices and intelligent sensors, for instance, can capture data from remote assets and integrate those into existing infrastructure systems.

On the other hand, edge computing allows computations to be done at the nodes or nearer to the sources of data. By running applications at the edge, networks in data centers can reduce their energy consumption since there is less amount of data traversing the networks. Contrast this to infrastructures that need to process data in data centers that are hundreds of miles away. Thus, IT experts believe that edge data centers, IoT devices, and in-built sensors can improve the overall data center ecosystem across the globe.

Vendor Challenges in the DCIM Market

As more enterprises adopt IoT and edge computing, vendors might need to also upgrade their solutions to accommodate changing IT infrastructure. Vendors could make their solutions more relevant in today’s DCIM market by enhancing the monitoring capabilities of the solutions.

Moreover, vendors should also consider the cost of their solutions. As we learned from the report, DCIM solutions can be expensive and require high initial infrastructure investments. They also have a slow ROI, which could discourage enterprises from investing in DCIM solutions.

To address this issue, vendors can focus on offering turnkey solutions that could lower the total cost of ownership for DCIM solutions. Also, vendors should consider working closely with enterprises to help them define their set objectives for their data centers. One approach that works for a company might not work for another, so doing an evaluation of areas that need to be improved in the data center can enable vendors to offer more cost-effective solutions to clients.