ColdAisle vs Global Site Management

ColdAisle is free, MIT-licensed, on-premise software for managing data center infrastructure. It runs on Windows using IIS, PHP, and SQL Server, and the marketing site does not host customer inventory. Its floor planner supports 2D layouts and interactive 3D views with cabinets, row PDUs, and raceways. Power tools cover A/B zones, panels, single-, dual-, and three-phase PDUs, outlet inventory, history charts, and overload alerts. Cooling features include CRAC and CRAH equipment, environmental sensors, and 3D airflow visualization. Device monitoring supports SNMPv2c and SNMPv3, MIB uploads, discovery, OID templates, and scheduled polling; SNMP secrets are encrypted at rest with the application key. Authentication options include local accounts, LDAPS with Active Directory group mapping, and Microsoft Entra ID OIDC single sign-on. ColdAisle can import openDCIM data through a live API or offline JSON dumps, with a preview before migration. Its IPAM feature does not provide IPv6, DNS, or a DHCP server.

Global Site Management (GSM) is data center infrastructure management software for operations, capacity planning and risk mitigation. Its listed tools cover hardware discovery, real-time power and environmental data, energy analysis, outlet control and power gear configuration. Planning features include capacity modeling, failure detection and alerts, device failure impact assessment, and measurements for custom groups. Asset management includes inventory, reservations, movement audits, documents, warranty management, CSV import and work orders. Norlinx says GSM connects IT and facility equipment—including PDUs, sensors, servers, switches and storage—using common protocols such as SNMP, JSON, BACnet and Modbus, and can accommodate others. The comparison also lists Microsoft Visio integration for floor plans and devices; GSMintegrate describes trouble-ticket connections such as Remedy. GSM is deployed on-premises. Listed requirements include 64-bit Windows, 8 GB available RAM, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Visio Professional. The free GSMpowerlite plan is intended for smaller data centers and pilot programs; trials are generally free and last 30 days.