Top Data Center Management Trends to Watch in 2025

The data center industry continues to evolve every year, and 2025 will be no different.

2024 saw lots of movement towards AI, sustainability, and cloud repatriation to name a few key trends.

With 2025 just around the corner, take a look at the rising trends that will shape data center management next year.

If you haven’t created an action plan yet for these emerging trends, now is the time to consider them in your 2025 strategy.

• Sustainability remains a top concern. In 2025, data center sustainability will be a central pillar of design and operations as organizations respond to pressure to meet green initiatives and reduce their carbon footprint. Focus will continue to shift to renewable energy sources like solar and wind, energy-efficient liquid cooling, and waste heat recovery. Data center managers are prioritizing carbon neutrality, leveraging modern hardware and energy management software, and directives like EED and CSRD to ensure environmentally responsible operations.
• Technology asset management is expanding to spaces outside the data center. As data center assets decrease or remain flat, cloud-first organizations are expanding their asset tracking into other spaces such as IDF closets. Creating a single data repository for all technology assets drives cross-functional collaboration with a single pane of glass while supporting compliance reporting and creating potential opportunities to save money from tool consolidation. Read the Erie Insurance case study to learn how they achieved this.
• Colo space is getting more scarce and expensive. Colo rental rates are at an all-time high while vacancy rates are at an all-time low. Data center managers must intelligently increase utilization of existing colo capacity without introducing risk. For example, Cisco has leveraged DCIM software to help them consolidate into fewer colo cages, saving them $40,000 a month (or $480,000 a year!) in just one site alone.
• Hybrid Computing and Cloud repatriation is on the rise. According to Uptime Institute, cost is the number one concern for data center professionals, and Barclays’ CIO survey reveals that 83% of CIO's surveyed in 2024 plan to overcome this is by repatriating workloads to a private cloud or on-premises infrastructure from the public cloud. Companies are leveraging DCIM software to drive efficiency and uptime during their cloud repatriation in their efforts to contain costs and simplify on-premises data center infrastructure management.
• DCIM copilots are automating data center work. Data center managers are tasked with doing more with less and increasing operational efficiency. DCIM copilots are helping them do just that. For example, Sunbird's Load Shift Detection is a tunable AI copilot that leverages data from outlet-metered intelligent rack PDUs to detect and alert when the load shifts from one power supply on an IT device to another, indicating a potential loss of redundancy. Sunbird's Auto Power Budget is another that leverages data from outlet-metered intelligent rack PDUs to automatically calculate an accurate power budget number for each server instance based on its actual measured load, which helps reduce stranded capacity.
• Rack densities continue to increase. Data centers are constantly trying to handle the rising power and cooling resource demands from AI, machine learning, and cloud services which have increased rack densities immensely. Organizations are trying to determine if their data centers can support AI hardware and workloads and require advanced capacity planning tools such as those that factor in the weight load of high-density equipment.
• DCIM software adoption is increasing. According to Uptime Institute, “discussions with operators suggest there is a growing need for DCIM software, and related tools, to help resolve some of the urgent operational issue around sustainability, resiliency, and capacity management.” Leading organizations are ditching their Excel spreadsheets and first-generation DCIM software for modern, second-generation DCIM that offers 3D digital twin visualization, automation via integration, and so much more.  

As we look toward 2025, the data center industry is set to embrace innovation to meet the growing demands of a connected world.

By adopting modern data center management solutions, data centers will not only keep pace with industry trends but also contribute to a greener and more efficient world. The future of data centers is bright, and 2025 promises to be a pivotal year.

Want to see why Sunbird’s DCIM software is helping customers prepare for next year and beyond? Get your free test drive today!