Capacity planning has always been done manually by taking readings and calculating loads, but the tools in this category will give data center managers a more efficient and quicker way to track resources.

"Finding out you have a problem two months prior to having a problem is not soon enough. Capital planning and readiness takes nine to 18 months, so a system that gives us a trending method is a huge advantage for us," said one user of capacity planning software.

In November 2007, Searchdatacenter.com published a data center construction survey showing that 82% -- that's right, 82% -- of respondents would be building or renovating a data center in either 2007 or 2008. Keeping ahead of these projects matters much, because if you want to secure that sort of capital funding, you've got to give your executives a good idea of when you'll need it.