## Excerpt

DCIM tools know what hardware exists and how much power it consumes. However, they cannot determine the full environmental impact of a workload on this hardware. The NADIKI Registrar bridges this gap—not as a competing product, but as an integration layer that connects asset data, operational telemetry, and lifecycle data into an environmental impact record per workload.

## Content

Our analysis of the DCIM market reveals a structural gap: No available tool—neither commercial nor open source—provides actual environmental impact data per workload. PUE, CUE, and WUE describe the efficiency of a building, not the impact of an application. This raised a design question for the NADIKI project: Do we build our own DCIM system—or do we build on what already exists?

The Strategy: Complement rather than Replace

Data centers already operate DCIM and CMDB systems. A new tool that collects the same data again creates redundancy and fails to gain acceptance. Therefore, we position the NADIKI Registrar as a layer that builds on existing systems and uses their data for environmental impact calculations.

Specifically, the Registrar connects four data sources that today exist in isolation:

• Asset Identity from NetBox, Device42, Nlyte, or any CMDB with REST-API—the Registrar adopts the hardware inventory instead of maintaining it itself.

• Operational Telemetry from DCIM monitoring (Sunbird Power IQ, EcoStruxure, Hyperview) or directly via SNMP/Modbus/Redfish/IPMI—real-time data on power consumption and cooling.

• LCA and Embodied Carbon Data from the Boavizta API or manufacturer EPD databases—the Registrar enriches asset records with lifecycle impact data.

• Grid Emission Factors from the Electricity Maps API—location-based and time-based CO₂ intensity of the electricity mix.

Added Value of the NADIKI Registrar for the DCIM Ecosystem

From these four sources, the Registrar calculates environmental impact indicators as time series—per server, per rack, per data center, per workload. The results are available through a REST API and can be accessed for CSRD/ESG reporting, procurement decisions, or reporting dashboards.

The six indicators are aligned with existing LCA methods and regulatory requirements:

• Primary Energy Consumption (kWh)—renewable and non-renewable, reported separately

• Reused Energy (kWh)—e.g., waste heat utilization

• Water Usage (m³)—at the data center level

• Greenhouse Potential (CO₂-eq.)—combined operational and embodied emissions

• Abiotic Resource Consumption (kg Sb-eq.)—mineral resources from hardware manufacturing

The key difference from DCIM metrics: These indicators do not describe the efficiency of a building, but the actual environmental impact of a specific usage—including embodied emissions from manufacturing and disposal.

Why This Strategy Works

The integration strategy leverages three aspects of the current DCIM market:

• API Maturity of Leading Sources: NetBox (REST + GraphQL), Device42, and Hyperview offer mature, documented APIs. The tools most likely to serve as data sources enable automated data intake.

• No Vendor Lock-in: The Registrar is source-agnostic. Whether a data center operates Sunbird, Nlyte, or a custom-built CMDB—as long as an API provides inventory and measurement data, the Registrar can process it.

• Existing Investments Remain Valuable: Data centers do not need to replace their DCIM or monitoring infrastructure. The Registrar fills the gap—environmental impact calculation—without disrupting existing workflows.

The full technical architecture is described in the publication on the Observer Architecture. The open-source implementation is available as NADIKI Registrar on GitHub.

Related Publications:

- [[IDED/Communication/Website/Publications/Live/nadiki-observer-architecture-environmental-impact]]

- [[IDED/Communication/Website/Publications/Live/nadiki-registrar-implementation-open-source]]

- [[IDED/Communication/Website/Publications/Live/nadiki-api-environmental-impact-data-center-ai]]

- [[IDED/Communication/Website/Publications/Drafts/nadiki-dcim-market-analysis-environmental-impact]]