Techniques are described for controlling the climate in a data center. Using the input of an administrator, multiple desired attributes of a data center (e.g., temperature, energy consumption, costs, or system performance) may be balanced using a utility function that maximizes the utility of the computing systems in the data center according to the administrator's preferences. Additionally, a cooling model is generated that represents the affect of a control parameter (e.g., the fan speed of a CRAC) on the desire attributes of the data center. The cooling model may then be substituted into the utility function to replace the desired attributes. Using this new utility function, the control parameters may be varied such that the maximum utility is achieved.