Talking exclusively to DatacenterDynamics today Paul Goodison, CEO of Cormant, the infrastructure management software company, said that the continuing shakeout in the DCIM market was set to gather some pace this year as the international market matures. He also said that too much was being expected of DCIM implementations too soon.

“A good DCIM implementation has to be valuable to the user from day one  - but it can’t perform at optimal value from day one. Most data centers wanting to implement a DCIM solution are moving from raw data in spreadsheet form to a sophisticated ‘automated’ solution which is exceptionally complex.

“It’s not an easy transition to make but it is more of a leap of faith – many organisations are surprised at how quickly they can re-deploy ‘spreadsheet’ staff.”

Goodison thinks that some of the initial value of DCIM installations is the ‘what have I got’ reporting that can be run immediately after installation: “The new DCIM user has high equipment and space visibility across their whole data center and we find that the first thing they find useful are the ‘alerts’ functions which allow them to analyse potential issues to stop them becoming actual problems.”

He also said that new clients were using DCIM in a ‘what if’ type of way – running visualizations of cooling and then planning change to gain an optimal real-life situation.

Remember this one - hire an accountant!

“We are also seeing the old adage, that the best technical advice can sometimes be obtained by hiring an accountant, starting to re-appear,” said Goodison.

“Data center managers have the same capex and opex problems as the rest of the business. Yes, they also have Software Defined Networking breathing down their necks and Open Compute providing more and more efficient suggestions but a really good DCIM system can help reduce the operating and capital costs that all businesses have to deal with.”

Goodison is optimistic about the long-term prospects for DCIM.