Techniques are disclosed for identifying the locations of equipment in computing environments such as data centers. For example, a method of identifying a location of at least one computing device in a computing environment, including a plurality of computing devices, includes the following steps. A first representation of temperature conditions associated with the plurality of computing devices is obtained while the at least one computing device is in a first mode. The at least one computing device is placed into a second mode. A second representation of temperature conditions associated with the plurality of computing devices is obtained while the at least one computing device is in the second mode. The location of the at least one computing system is determined using the first representation and the second representation. The first mode may be one of a normal operating mode and an idle mode, and the second mode may be the other of the normal operating mode and the idle mode.