Successful server consolidation: it is all in the preparation

Successful server consolidation: it's all in the preparation
To help you determine whether your IT environment is a candidate for consolidation,
InfoWorld
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has gathered the most common reasons for consolidation.
InfoWorld top 10 reasons for consolidation:
1. Losing track of servers
2. Facing scalability restrictions
3. High ratio of administrators to servers
4. Running more than seven operating systems
5. Difficulty controlling software licenses
6. It is less expensive to buy new servers than to do capacity planning
7. Purchasing is decentralized, but management is centralized
8. Utilization rates for more than half of the servers are in single digits
9. Physical space for every server is becoming difficult/expensive to find
10. Server maintenance costs are skyrocketing
Business objectives
Once you establish that your IT environment is a candidate for server consolidation, the
next step is to take a look at what the outcome of the initiative will be and how your
“end-state” environment will look. Business objectives should be evaluated in the same
terms as business drivers: financial, operational, and strategic.
Financial
Cost savings is the first potential benefit since economic justification is necessary to help
build a case for implementing server consolidation. The easiest way to look at cost
savings is through two categories – cost avoidance and cost reduction. Your objective
might be to reduce operating expenses, cost per server, or avoid costs such as power
consumption costs, purchasing new equipment, Service Level Agreements (SLA),
outsourcing costs to maintain your infrastructure, or costs from additional data center
space.
Operational
Improved availability and functionality can also be a result of a successful consolidation
initiative. If your infrastructure is frequently faced with downtime challenges, end users
will have a hard time being productive. One of the objectives of the consolidation effort
might be to obtain the best possible availability for end users. In other words, you want
your IT environment to achieve or approach “five nines” or 99.999% uptime.
Your IT environment consists of servers in four different locations and four different sets of
engineers to maintain the platforms. Streamlining your infrastructure would be a top
priority and primary business objective. Not only would you reduce the costs associated
with managing your IT infrastructure, but you would also benefit from having a less
complex infrastructure.
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InfoWorld provides in-depth analysis on key products, solutions, and technologies for sound buying decisions and business
gain. Visit www.infoworld.com
for more information.
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