Avocent has introduced a new datacentre management suite that focuses on resources such as cooling, power requirements and space in order to help enterprises plan and operate their datacentres more effectively.

Announced at the Interop conference in Las Vegas, Avocent MergePoint Infrastructure Explorer integrates resource and asset management to deliver a comprehensive overview of the datacentre through a single web-based console, according to the firm.

"The traditional approach has often been to plan using spreadsheets and manually gathered information from various sources. Infrastructure Explorer consolidates this information, and provides a single pane of glass for IT and facilities people," said Avocent European sales manager Marc Marazzi.

Infrastructure Explorer links with existing management tools, such as Avocent's own DSView 3 and LANDesk Asset Lifecycle Manager (PDF) to gather up-to-date information on infrastructure. It also has a library with details of a broad range of datacentre equipment, enabling an accurate floor plan to be captured for modelling purposes.

"Our tool can show you the best place to put your switches, and how much power capacity you have left over," said Marazzi.

Avocent country manager Owen McKee claimed that the new tool was the result of a new joined-up approach to datacentre management within organisations.

"People are starting to work a lot closer across the various silos within an organisation, and this enables them to make more informed decisions about capacity, and whether they perhaps need to look at building a new datacentre," he explained.

McKee said that Infrastructure Explorer is likely to prove useful "across the board", from the chief information officer who needs to demonstrate that due process has been carried out, to helping facilities management plan where to put power outlets, to IT staff carrying out day-to-day monitoring.

The suite is vendor-agnostic and will integrate with systems from IBM, HP and others, as well as third-party management tools. It will also federate with other configuration management databases.

Infrastructure Explorer is available immediately, licensed at £750 per managed rack.