Datacenter & cloud · 2024
DCIM modernization and capacity planning at hyperscale
Cloud infrastructure provider
Challenge
Rack and power reservations lived in three tools; sales quoted megawatts that engineering could not physically deliver on the requested timeline. Stranded capacity and last-minute redesigns drove cost and delay. Leadership wanted a live view of utilization, failover headroom, and water/power constraints per site without another rip-and-replace of the BMS layer.
Solution
We implemented a pragmatic DCIM backbone: authoritative inventory for racks, PDUs, and network paths; automated reconciliation against BMS and EPMS reads; and what-if scenarios for new workloads. APIs fed CRM and quoting so only feasible configurations reached contracts. We aligned naming, tagging, and change control so every capacity move was traceable from sales intent to field execution.
- Golden record for space, power, and network capacity with weekly reconciliation
- Scenario modeling for liquid vs. air cooling, redundancy tiers, and burst loads
- Integration hooks to quoting and project systems to avoid double-booking
- Executive views of stranded vs. committed capacity by region
Results
- Reduced overprovisioning and last-minute design churn
- Faster, defensible answers to customer RFPs on delivery dates
- Clearer capex conversations tied to utilization and pipeline