The Pros and Cons of Server Consolidation (continued)
savings. "With the current drive toward 'green' data centers, this is a major business driver," says John Sloan, a senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, in London, Ont., Canada.
- Decreased labor and support costs Experts estimate that more than 70 percent of the TCO of the data center derives from administrative, labor and outsourced services. Server consolidation should slash those expenses. "Just take the amount of time it takes to provision a new server," says Jacob Farmer, chief technology officer at Cambridge Computer Corp., a consulting firm specializing in data protection and storage networking, located in Waltham, Mass. "Before, you had to order it, transport it to and from the loading dock, screw it into the racks and configure it. Today, all you need to do is sit down at a terminal and conjure up a new virtual server."
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Before moving ahead with consolidation plans, though, data center managers must consider a number of challenges. Chief among them: disaster recovery. "You have to have a backup machine that has the same capabilities of each production server," Pacileo points out. "These hardware costs -- and the related support costs -- can add up, and reduce your anticipated savings."
An added detriment: In the past, when a server went down, it might inconvenience a couple of hundred people. Now, says Pacileo, "If you consolidate 30 servers onto one, and that goes down, you take down thousands of users. The risks are much greater."
Paradoxically, because it's so easy to create new virtual servers on existing hardware, many data centers find the number of logical servers proliferating, leading to higher complexity and greater related support costs.
"It's so easy to get as many virtual servers as you want without jumping through hoops," says Farmer. "People think, 'Why not just create another server?' without thinking through the ramifications." (article continues)
<< Previous Page
Next Page >>
