Consolidation
Server consolidation has become much more than simply finding ways to run as much as possible on as few servers as possible. New technology and different approaches to hardware rationalisation are driving more and more organisations to view it as a route to cutting unnecessary costs and maximising returns.
Typically, server utilisation is on average anywhere between 5% - 20%, pointing towards a considerable amount of underused hardware. Data centres are quickly being filled to capacity, and every time a new server is purchased, capital and operating expenditures go up along with power and cooling costs.
As organisations adopt hardware virtualisation techniques in the data centre and work towards reducing server sprawl, the opportunity exists to mix different types of consolidation for more effective results.
ukngroup helps clients carry out the detailed planning and analysis of end-user requirements, application requirements and existing server infrastructure, prior to embarking on a program of rationalisation. Our long standing expertise in this field means we can confidently recommend the appropriate course of action and deploy the right combination of available technologies.
In order to fully understand server consolidation in today’s corporate environments it is helpful to break it down into three different approaches:
- Physical – attempts to keep geographic distribution of servers to a minimum, reducing the costs of providing space and administration.
- Logical – adoption of the same management and control systems across all servers using common administration and setup processes. This can help save a great deal of time and is relatively easy to implement.
- Workload – using fewer larger servers to replace what was being accomplished by a large number of smaller servers. Hardware virtualisation has become a key component of workload consolidation; decoupling the applications from the physical resource required to run them.
