Patent ID: 8473265

Claim:
A method for presenting a cooling model of a data center, the cooling model including representations of at least one cooling provider, at least one cooling consumer and at least one perforated tile, the at least one cooling consumer having cooling requirements, the method comprising: segmenting the cooling model into a plurality of layers, each of the plurality of layers being a bounded space within the cooling model and including one or more modeled components located within the bounded space, the plurality of layers having a first layer that includes the at least one perforated tile and a second layer that includes the at least one cooling consumer; receiving an indication to reposition the first layer relative to the second layer; determining, in response to the indication and based upon positions of the first layer and the second layer, at least one new position for the at least one perforated tile relative to the at least one cooling consumer; determining a cooling metric measuring the ability of the at least one cooling provider to meet the cooling requirements of the at least one cooling consumer via the at least one perforated tile in the at least one new position; and displaying the cooling model on a computer system, the at least one cooling consumer including an indication of the cooling metric.