The growing importance of data centers has had significant impact on mission critical facilities design, operation, and management over the past 20 years. In fact, the term DCIM (data center infrastructure management) is now used interchangeably with facilities management when discussing management of a building’s power supply, controls, and mechanicals. During this period, data centers and facilities management solution providers have made a critical shift from a primarily real estate focus (hosting, housing, etc.) to a value-added business focus, where remaining competitive requires a working technology partnership with customers.
These technology partnerships have been positive for the industry and can be credited for many of the innovations that have emerged over the past two decades. A recent example of a technology partnership with the potential to produce a game changing product is the one between building automation and management systems provider Envirotrol and mission critical power industry solutions provider Power Analytics. Under their agreement, Envirotrol is introducing a next generation integrated management system (IMS) that uses model validated analytics (MVA) to turn complex facility operating data into useful DCIM information.