The DCIM market is small but expanding, according to 451 Research.
The company forecasts the worldwide DCIM software market will be $427 million in 2012 and will grow at 39% a year to reach nearly $1.3 billion in 2015.
A major driver for DCIM is capacity planning, said Lawrence.
If a data center over-provisions or under-provisions, the cost of fixing the problem can be between $10 million to $20 million per megawatt, he said.
Proper capacity planning is one way to realize a return on DCIM.