diff --git a/puppetboard/app.py b/puppetboard/app.py
index 9dfe18a..05ce75d 100644
--- a/puppetboard/app.py
+++ b/puppetboard/app.py
@@ -343,29 +343,11 @@ def nodes(env):
                         current_env=env)))
 
 
-@app.route('/inventory', defaults={'env': app.config['DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT']})
-@app.route('/<env>/inventory')
-def inventory(env):
-    """Fetch all (active) nodes from PuppetDB and stream a table displaying
-    those nodes along with a set of facts about them.
-
-    Downside of the streaming aproach is that since we've already sent our
-    headers we can't abort the request if we detect an error. Because of this
-    we'll end up with an empty table instead because of how yield_or_stop
-    works. Once pagination is in place we can change this but we'll need to
-    provide a search feature instead.
-
-    :param env: Search for facts in this environment
-    :type env: :obj:`string`
-    """
-    envs = environments()
-    check_env(env, envs)
-
-    headers = []        # a list of fact descriptions to go
-    # in the table header
-    fact_names = []     # a list of inventory fact names
-    fact_data = {}      # a multidimensional dict for node and
-    # fact data
+def inventory_facts():
+    # a list of facts descriptions to go in table header
+    headers = []
+    # a list of inventory fact names
+    fact_names = []
 
     # load the list of items/facts we want in our inventory
     try:
@@ -383,33 +365,65 @@ def inventory(env):
         headers.append(desc)
         fact_names.append(name)
 
+    return headers, fact_names
+
+
+@app.route('/inventory', defaults={'env': app.config['DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT']})
+@app.route('/<env>/inventory')
+def inventory(env):
+    """Fetch all (active) nodes from PuppetDB and stream a table displaying
+    those nodes along with a set of facts about them.
+
+    :param env: Search for facts in this environment
+    :type env: :obj:`string`
+    """
+    envs = environments()
+    check_env(env, envs)
+    headers, fact_names = inventory_facts()
+
+    return render_template(
+        'inventory.html',
+        envs=envs,
+        current_env=env,
+        fact_headers=headers)
+
+
+@app.route('/inventory/json',
+           defaults={'env': app.config['DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT']})
+@app.route('/<env>/inventory/json')
+def inventory_ajax(env):
+    """Backend endpoint for inventory table"""
+    draw = int(request.args.get('draw', 0))
+
+    envs = environments()
+    check_env(env, envs)
+    headers, fact_names = inventory_facts()
+
     query = AndOperator()
     fact_query = OrOperator()
     fact_query.add([EqualsOperator("name", name) for name in fact_names])
+    query.add(fact_query)
 
     if env != '*':
         query.add(EqualsOperator("environment", env))
 
-    query.add(fact_query)
-
-    # get all the facts from PuppetDB
     facts = puppetdb.facts(query=query)
 
+    fact_data = {}
     for fact in facts:
         if fact.node not in fact_data:
             fact_data[fact.node] = {}
-
         fact_data[fact.node][fact.name] = fact.value
 
-    return Response(stream_with_context(
-        stream_template(
-            'inventory.html',
-            headers=headers,
-            fact_names=fact_names,
+    total = len(fact_data)
+
+    return render_template(
+            'inventory.json.tpl',
+            draw=draw,
+            total=total,
+            total_filtered=total,
             fact_data=fact_data,
-            envs=envs,
-            current_env=env
-        )))
+            columns=fact_names)
 
 
 @app.route('/node/<node_name>/',
diff --git a/puppetboard/templates/inventory.html b/puppetboard/templates/inventory.html
index 5eedeb7..098e1d8 100644
--- a/puppetboard/templates/inventory.html
+++ b/puppetboard/templates/inventory.html
@@ -1,24 +1,21 @@
 {% extends 'layout.html' %}
+{% import '_macros.html' as macros %}
 {% block content %}
-<div class="ui fluid icon input hide" style="margin-bottom:20px">
-  <input autofocus="autofocus" class="filter-table" placeholder="Type here to filter...">
-</div>
-<table class='ui compact very basic sortable table'>
+<table id="inventory_table" class='ui fixed compact very basic sortable table'>
   <thead>
     <tr>
-      {% for head in headers %}
-      <th{% if loop.index == 1 %} class="default-sort"{% endif %}>{{head}}</th>
+      {% for head in fact_headers %}
+      <th>{{head}}</th>
       {% endfor %}
     </tr>
   </thead>
   <tbody class="searchable">
-    {% for node, facts in fact_data.iteritems() %}
-    <tr>
-      {% for name in fact_names %}
-      <td><a href="{{url_for('node', env=current_env, node_name=node)}}">{{facts.get(name, 'undef')}}</a></td>
-      {% endfor %}
-    </tr>
-    {% endfor %}
   </tbody>
 </table>
 {% endblock content %}
+{% block onload_script %}
+{% macro extra_options(caller) %}
+  'serverSide': false,
+{% endmacro %}
+{{ macros.datatable_init(table_html_id="inventory_table", ajax_url=url_for('inventory_ajax', env=current_env), default_length=config.NORMAL_TABLE_COUNT, length_selector=config.TABLE_COUNT_SELECTOR, extra_options=extra_options) }}
+{% endblock onload_script %}
diff --git a/puppetboard/templates/inventory.json.tpl b/puppetboard/templates/inventory.json.tpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d94bcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/puppetboard/templates/inventory.json.tpl
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+{%- import '_macros.html' as macros -%}
+{
+  "draw": {{draw}},
+  "recordsTotal": {{total}},
+  "recordsFiltered": {{total_filtered}},
+  "data": [
+    {% for node in fact_data -%}
+      {%- if not loop.first %},{%- endif -%}
+      [
+        {%- for column in columns -%}
+          {%- if not loop.first %},{%- endif -%}
+          {%- if column in ['fqdn', 'hostname'] -%}
+            {% filter jsonprint %}<a href="{{ url_for('node', env=current_env, node_name=node) }}">{{ node }}</a>{% endfilter %}
+          {%- elif fact_data[node][column] -%}
+            {{ fact_data[node][column] | jsonprint }}
+          {%- else -%}
+            ""
+          {%- endif -%}
+        {%- endfor -%}
+      ]
+    {% endfor -%}
+  ]
+}