Compass Datacenters is going to make Romonet's data center cost and operational analysis software part of its standard offering, the companies announced Tuesday. The software will be part of Compass' Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) platform.

Romonet says its software helps customers calculate the “true cost of ownership” of their data centers. The calculation includes both capital expense of building a data center and the ongoing cost of operating it.

Chris Crosby, CEO and one of the founders of Compass, said the need for a good cost-analysis tool has become very acute in the data center industry over the recent years. This is because the cost of construction and operation of data centers has gone up dramatically, while capacity planning has become more complex.

"One of the holy grails for the industry has been to find a way to predict and control costs, and Romonet's technology does exactly that,” Crosby said. “That is why we are incorporating it into our DCIM platform.

Romonet's cloud-based portal has forecasting, planning and business-performance measurement capabilities for data centers. The solution is based on the company's proprietary predictive-modeling technology.

Both Compass and Romonet are recent comers to the data center market: the former was launched last year, while the latter unveiled itself in 2010. Behind the two firms are seasoned industry figures, however.

Crosby was a member of the team that founded Digital Realty Trust – one of the world's largest data center providers. Zahl Limbuwala, CEO and founder of Romonet, is also founder and chairman of the Data Center Specialist Group at the British Computer Society.

See Crosby and Limbuwala speak at next week's DatacenterDynamics Converged conference in New York City

Compass announced its first builds last year: one in Nashville, Tennessee, and the other in Durham, North Carolina. The company also raised US$45m in debt in September.

Last year, Romonet announced that data center engineering firms Red Engineering and Critical Solutions and Innovations would use its software when designing solutions for clients.