AI is reshaping how data centers operate by driving automation and improving operational efficiency, and at the same time, it is encouraging businesses to build facilities that can accommodate AI’s high compute demands with liquid cooling and modular power. Sustainability is now central, with enterprises adopting advanced energy monitoring, carbon emissions reduction practices, and circular IT models to meet ESG goals. Service providers are responding through generative (Gen) AI, agentic AI, and AIOps-driven solutions to deliver resilience, efficiency, and accelerated modernization.
Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our Data Center Managed Services 2025–2026 Market Insights™ and Data Center Managed Services 2025–2026 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of data center managed service providers and closely examine market leaders, innovators, disruptors, challengers, and tech pioneers.
Avasant evaluated 34 service providers across two dimensions: practice maturity and future proofing. Of the 34 providers, we recognized 27 that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.
The report recognizes service providers in five categories:
Figure 1 below from the full report illustrates these categories:
“AI is enabling data centers to move from reactive to predictive and automated operations,” said Avasant Partner Henry Guapo. “Through AI-driven forecasting, cooling optimization, congestion management, and cost modelling, enterprises boost efficiency and enable autonomous remediation.”
The reports provide several findings, including the following:
Rising energy costs and stricter efficiency mandates are driving organizations to adopt advanced cooling, real-time monitoring, and virtualization to optimize power consumption and reduce operational expenses
“AI workloads are fundamentally reshaping data center design,” said Gaurav Dewan, research director at Avasant. “To support large GPU clusters, data centers are adopting liquid cooling, high-speed network fabrics, and modular power architectures, enabling higher efficiency and scalability while advancing sustainability goals.”
The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 27 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting enterprises in their data center management journeys.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of Avasant’s Data Center Managed Services 2025-2026 Market Insights™ and Data Center Managed Services 2025-2026 RadarView™. (click for pricing)
Avasant’s research and other publications are based on information from the best available sources and Avasant’s independent assessment and analysis at the time of publication. Avasant takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any error/omission or the accuracy of information contained in its research publications. Avasant does not endorse any provider, product or service described in its RadarView™ publications or any other research publications that it makes available to its users, and does not advise users to select only those providers recognized in these publications. Avasant disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. None of the graphics, descriptions, research, excerpts, samples or any other content provided in the report(s) or any of its research publications may be reprinted, reproduced, redistributed or used for any external commercial purpose without prior permission from Avasant, LLC. All rights are reserved by Avasant, LLC.
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