At act 508, a greater of the CACI and the HACI is used for determining a cooling-performance assessment. For example, if a CACI for a unit of IT equipment is 90%, and a HACI for the unit of IT equipment is 66%, then the CACI is used. The greater of the CACI and the HACI may be selected because the greater capture index may be enough to ensure good cooling airflow delivery to IT inlets or to effectively capture warm IT exhaust before the exhaust has the opportunity to affect IT inlets. In some examples, it may be unnecessarily conservative to both ensure good airflow delivery and to ensure effective exhaust recapture, such that only one capture index need be considered. The process 500 then continues to act 510, and the process 500 ends. Where the process 500 is implemented as an example of act 312, the process 300 may then continue to act 314 to determine a cooling-performance assessment based on the greater of the HACI and the CACI.

Otherwise, if the containment type is not uncontained (506 NO), the process 500 continues to act 512. For example, for containment types other than the uncontained type, a design intent may be more apparent from a configuration of IT equipment. For example, the design intent may place a greater emphasis on recapturing IT exhaust, ensuring good airflow delivery, or a combination of both. It may be advantageous to select a capture index that aligns with the design intent for determining the cooling-performance assessment.