The Critical Role of Software in Modern Data Center Operations

By Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC

Power and cooling infrastructure has always been the foundation of data center operations. What has changed substantially over the past decade is how much of that infrastructure’s value depends on software. A UPS that runs without monitoring is a black box. A precision cooling system without visibility into load trends is a reactive maintenance problem waiting to happen. The organizations getting the most out of their infrastructure investments are the ones that have connected that infrastructure to software platforms that tell them what’s actually happening, continuously and not just taking a snapshot at the next PM visit.

This article covers the software layer that Schneider Electric provides for critical power and cooling infrastructure management: what each platform does, where each one fits, and how to think about the right choice for your environment.

The Monitoring Gap – And Why it Matters More Now 

Most data centers and server rooms are maintained on a scheduled basis: quarterly or semi-annual PMs, battery replacements on a calendar cycle, reactive response when something fails. That approach made reasonable sense when IT infrastructure was simpler and less densely packed. It makes less sense now.

AI workloads, hyperconverged infrastructure, and expanded IP systems have increased power density and thermal load in facilities that were designed for a different compute environment. A UPS that was sized correctly three years ago may be running at 85% of capacity today. A battery string that passed its last PM may have lost significant capacity since. A cooling system that was adequate before a server refresh may be struggling with a load it wasn’t designed for.

The problem isn’t that the infrastructure is failing. It’s that without continuous monitoring, there’s no reliable way to know its actual state between maintenance visits. Scheduled PMs and reactive response are not a monitoring strategy. They’re a starting point that software is designed to extend.

The Cost of Not Knowing

An undetected UPS overload, a battery that fails under load, or a cooling system that can’t keep up with a thermal event during a holiday weekend are not hypothetical risks. They are the predictable outcome of infrastructure that is maintained but not monitored. The software platforms covered in this article exist specifically to close that gap.

EcoStruxure IT: Cloud-Based Monitoring and Management 

EcoStruxure IT is Schneider Electric’s current cloud-based monitoring and management platform for critical power and cooling infrastructure. It provides real-time visibility into UPS load, battery health, environmental conditions, and device status across all monitored locations, from a single interface accessible on any device. Power Solutions’ EcoStruxure IT page covers the platform in detail.

Schneider Electric’s cybersecure network management cards (NMC) provide the connectivity to integrate with EcoStruxure IT. The platform itself is licensed separately and configured to the specific environment. The NMC handles data collection and communication; EcoStruxure IT handles aggregation, analytics, alerting, and reporting.

What EcoStruxure IT Does

• Real-time monitoring: UPS load levels, battery state of charge and health, input/output voltage and frequency, and environmental sensor data are continuously updated and accessible from any connected device.
• Predictive alerts: EcoStruxure IT uses AI-assisted analytics to identify developing issues before they become failures, including load trending toward a threshold, degrading battery health, and environmental conditions approaching risk levels. This is meaningfully different from threshold-based alerting, which notifies after a condition has already been reached.
• Aggregated multi-site visibility: All monitored locations appear in a single dashboard, eliminating the need for site-by-site monitoring visits. For organizations managing multiple office locations, campus buildings, or regional facilities, this provides a unified view of infrastructure health across the entire environment.
• Vendor-neutral monitoring: EcoStruxure IT is not limited to Schneider Electric equipment. It monitors third-party UPS and environmental infrastructure alongside Schneider Electric installations, which is particularly useful for organizations with mixed installed bases.
• Event history and compliance documentation: Every event, alert, and maintenance action is logged and retained, supporting compliance documentation for regulated environments including healthcare, financial services, and government without manual record reconstruction.
• Li-Ion BMS integration: For UPS installations with Li-Ion batteries, EcoStruxure IT receives continuous cell-level data from the integrated BMS, including state of charge, state of health, and temperature. This provides real-time battery capacity visibility without requiring a discharge test. See our Li-Ion TCO whitepaper for more on how BMS monitoring factors into the battery chemistry decision.

Best Fit for EcoStruxure IT

EcoStruxure IT is the right choice for organizations that need monitoring visibility across multiple locations, have cloud-forward IT policies, or want the most capable predictive analytics available in the Schneider Electric software portfolio. It is particularly well-suited to distributed environments: multi-campus health systems, multi-office professional services firms, and university systems with distributed departmental infrastructure where aggregated visibility across sites has the most operational value.

EcoStruxure Data Center Expert: On-Premises DCIM for Environments with Specific Requirements 

EcoStruxure Data Center Expert (DCE), formerly StruxureWare, is Schneider Electric’s on-premises data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform. It provides monitoring, management, and capacity planning for power and cooling infrastructure from servers installed within the customer’s environment, with no cloud dependency and no data leaving the network.

EcoStruxure DCE is a current, actively supported platform. Schneider Electric continues to market and sell it for organizations that have documented requirements for on-premises infrastructure management. The choice between EcoStruxure IT and EcoStruxure DCE is a deployment model decision, not a capability-tier decision.

What EcoStruxure DCE Does

• On-premises monitoring: UPS load, battery health, environmental conditions, and device status are monitored with the same core data as EcoStruxure IT, delivered from infrastructure within your network.
• Capacity planning: EcoStruxure DCE includes capacity planning tools that model power and cooling headroom, floor space, and infrastructure utilization. This is useful for data center managers planning for growth or consolidation.
• Vendor-neutral: Like EcoStruxure IT, EcoStruxure DCE monitors third-party infrastructure alongside Schneider Electric equipment.
• Integration with existing IT systems: On-premises deployment simplifies integration with internal ITSM, BMS, or CMDB systems where cloud-based data exchange creates policy or security complications.

Best Fit for EcoStruxure DCE

EcoStruxure DCE is the right choice when on-premises deployment is a requirement rather than a preference. Common drivers include regulatory requirements that restrict cloud-based management of operational technology data, internal security policies that prohibit cloud connectivity for infrastructure management systems, and network architectures where cloud access for monitoring infrastructure is operationally impractical.

Healthcare organizations are a frequent fit. Many health systems have data governance policies or security frameworks that make cloud-based monitoring of clinical infrastructure a difficult internal conversation, regardless of the technical security of the platform itself. For those environments, EcoStruxure DCE provides the monitoring capability without the cloud dependency that creates the policy friction.

Choosing the Right Platform

The decision between EcoStruxure IT and EcoStruxure DCE is driven primarily by two questions: does your organization have a regulatory, policy-based, or architectural requirement for on-premises infrastructure management? And what level of predictive analytics capability does your environment need?

If the answer to the first question is yes, EcoStruxure DCE is the appropriate platform. The on-premises requirement narrows the decision regardless of other factors. If the answer is no, EcoStruxure IT is typically the better choice, offering more advanced predictive analytics, easier multi-site aggregation, and a simpler deployment model that doesn’t require maintaining on-premises server infrastructure for the monitoring system itself.

For organizations that are genuinely uncertain, the right starting point is a conversation about monitoring requirements: how many locations need to be covered, what the data governance and security constraints are, and what level of predictive capability the facilities and IT teams actually need. Power Solutions works through that evaluation as part of the monitoring assessment process.

ISX Central and Older Platforms

Organizations running ISX Central or older Schneider Electric monitoring platforms should be aware that those systems are no longer actively developed or supported. Both EcoStruxure IT and EcoStruxure DCE represent current-generation platforms with active development and support. If your monitoring infrastructure predates either of these platforms, a transition is worth planning. The monitoring capability gap between older platforms and current options is significant.

Monitoring at Smaller Sites: It still Matters

A common assumption is that software monitoring platforms are primarily relevant for large data centers. For distributed organizations, the opposite is often true. A single server room in a branch office or a small campus building is less likely to have dedicated IT staff on site, less likely to have monitoring infrastructure in place, and more likely to be the location where an undetected UPS problem causes an extended outage before anyone notices.

EcoStruxure IT‘s subscription model scales down to single-site deployments without requiring significant infrastructure investment. The NMC in a single UPS reports to EcoStruxure IT just as effectively as a fleet of 50 systems across 20 locations. For organizations managing distributed IT infrastructure at any scale, the monitoring conversation is worth having regardless of site size.

Next Steps

Whether your environment needs cloud-based predictive monitoring across multiple sites or a supported on-premises DCIM platform, Power Solutions can help evaluate the right fit, handle deployment and configuration, and provide ongoing support. Learn more on our EcoStruxure IT page or our EcoStruxure DCE page, or browse our resources library for whitepapers and educational content on critical power infrastructure topics.

Talk to Power Solutions About Your Monitoring Options

Call 800-876-9373, or email [email protected], to discuss your monitoring environment. Power Solutions provides EcoStruxure IT and EcoStruxure DCE deployment, configuration, and ongoing support for the full Schneider Electric infrastructure portfolio.

Molly Gross, Principal at Power Solutions, LLC, has over 15 years of experience in critical power for enterprise and government applications. She has extensive knowledge of UPS and data center infrastructure with a specialization in services and product lifecycle management.  Molly closely follows emerging trends and innovations in the critical power industry with an eye for incorporating leading edge technologies into both new construction and legacy infrastructures. Connect with Molly on LinkedIn.