Benefits of Server Consolidation

Transcription

1 Server Consolidation Benefits, Considerations, and Dell's Approach An IDC White Paper Analysts: Vernon Turner and Matthew Eastwood 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA Phone Fax For many companies, the concept of server consolidation connotes sweeping projects that replace numerous smaller servers with powerful, expensive workhorses. Many organizations have pursued this approach and realized significant cost savings and improved efficiency. Achieving the benefits of server consolidation, however, does not necessarily require a large-scale effort that is both extensive and expensive in terms of a lengthy planning cycle and up-front investment. Many organizations consolidate as part of the natural refresh cycle of their technology infrastructures. These efforts are more iterative processes, rather than one-time projects, that focus on reducing the number of datacenters as the technology infrastructure is updated and augmented. The results are still significant. By consolidating, organizations are able to boost efficiency and improve their service capabilities while maintaining an infrastructure that is both robust, highly available, and adaptive to changing business requirements. Dell is introducing an expanded program aimed at consolidating Microsoft-based environments to help customers reduce their total costs and gain greater control over their IT infrastructure. The company hopes to use its new Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool, latest-generation enterprise servers, systems management software, and services to help organizations realize the benefits of consolidation as they renew their technology infrastructures. DRIVERS AND BENEFITS OF SERVER CONSOLIDATION A good deal of the impetus for consolidation stems from the proliferation of distributed systems that occurred during the 1980s and 1990s. As the price/performance and functionality of small and midrange systems improved dramatically, many organizations moved toward a model of deploying distributed servers to support departmental processes. While such systems allowed organizations relatively cheap and easy access to powerful departmental applications, they eventually led to a quagmire of systems that were incompatible, unable to share information, and difficult or impossible to manage consistently. Organizations also faced the challenge of meeting increased levels of availability and security. At the same time, many companies looked to standardize their environments on a consolidated set of products from a more limited number of vendors in order to realize not only cost savings but also procurement, service, and management efficiencies. Sponsored by Dell

2 At the same time, many IT organizations became more service oriented. Their focus shifted from managing processes and technology to providing information access to a broad set of user constituencies. Users began to expect universal access to applications and information. Companies found that the duplication of servers, applications, and databases not only was expensive to maintain but also kept them from utilizing their resources and information to the maximum extent. The response has been a trend toward recentralization and consolidation of IT resources in the datacenter. Consolidation allows companies to improve overall business processing through three primary IT objectives: a higher and more consistent level of service, greater efficiency and control over operations, and the flexibility to respond to constantly changing business requirements (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Business Drivers for Consolidation Organizational flexibility Improved business processing Service levels Efficiency Source: IDC, 2002 ACHIEVING HIGHER LEVELS OF SERVICE Providing high levels of service is on every IT manager's mind as the user base expands beyond internal users to customers, suppliers, students, patients, other government agencies, and business partners. Everyone expects high levels of application and information availability and consistent response times. Consolidation provides a consistent management framework, which can lead to a more predictable and consistent level of service. Copyright 2002 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden. External Publication of IDC Information and Data Any IDC information that is to be used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to deny approval of external usage for any reason. Printed on recycled materials Server Consolidation: Benefits, 2

3 EFFICIENCY AND CONTROL The key to gaining efficiency is in better utilizing the available IT resources. Consolidating the server environment can lead to a more disciplined approach to management. As much as 55% of IT costs are associated with personnel, and, in a consolidated environment, the productivity of administrative personnel increases greatly. Some organizations may realize the benefit in reduced operational costs. IDC studies have shown a 7:1 cost savings in people management resources when processes and resources are consolidated. Others will benefit from the ability to focus highly skilled resources on higher-value tasks. Tighter management control will also enhance availability, security, and the ability to audit the consumption of services and charge back appropriately. For IT managers who consistently cite floor space and power consumption as key issues, the benefits of consolidation are obvious. Many organizations are looking to reduce not only the number of servers but the number of datacenters. Because the cost of network bandwidth has dropped dramatically, companies no longer need to deploy servers as close as possible to the users they support. Therefore, many organizations can implement smaller, regional datacenters, instead of a datacenter at each location. As server architectures grow increasingly modular, with the deployment of ultra-dense solutions such as server blades, the costs associated with power, space, cooling, and cabling will continue to drop. GREATER ORGANIZATIONAL FLEXIBILITY The greatest strategic value that companies gain from consolidation is an improved ability to efficiently adapt the infrastructure to incorporate new technologies and respond to new business requirements. All types of organizations business, government, medical providers, and educational institutions are driven by the need for high levels of services and information availability. With a consistent framework for managing data, IT spends less time moving data and transforming it into a usable form and, therefore, can respond more quickly to demands for data availability. The infrastructure is then better able to adapt as the organization moves forward. Once the IT center has completed the consolidation process and achieved the desired environment, users can expect more rapid deployment of new applications and features, leading to greater flexibility to respond to changing demands. TYPES OF CONSOLIDATION Consolidation of the server environment can occur at many different levels. Most organizations pursue different levels of consolidation at different times, depending on their particular requirements. Consolidation also tends to occur over time, as an iterative process, moving through the different types of consolidation. 3 Server Consolidation: Benefits,

4 The various types of consolidation should be viewed as steps along a continuum. The degrees of consolidation can be described in four general categories (see Figure 2): Figure 2: Types of Consolidation and Their Associated Benefits Transparent All system elements become virtual Little or no operator intervention Location is irrelevant Zero latency enterprise is the goal Workload Physical Common operating system Improved standards Business realignment Greatly increased flexibility Greater security Reduced skills dilution Lower overhead costs: power, space, etc. Improved network and application performance Greater security More efficient networking and storage Reduced failure points Potential ROI Logical Simplified administration Reduced operational headcount More effective and efficient use of administrative resources Less planned downtime Source: IDC, 2002 Logical consolidation reduces the number of points of control in the environment to a single administrative stream and reduces the number of consoles. The servers remain dispersed, while local operations are reduced or eliminated and management functions such as backup, restore, recovery, maintenance, and user support are performed remotely. A major benefit of logical consolidation is a reduction in operational headcount, or more efficient use of the skills already on hand. Using fewer people and a consistent set of products and processes can help reduce both the dilution of skills across the organization and the opportunity for errors. This approach reduces the cost of maintaining the environment and improves service to users. Server Consolidation: Benefits, 4

5 Physical consolidation involves consolidating components of the IT environment in one physical location. This colocation leads to greater efficiency by eliminating the replication of skill sets across different locations. When systems are in a central location, networking becomes much easier and more efficient, power costs are reduced, backup can be performed more efficiently, and security can be increased. There are also subsequent savings in floor space costs. Consolidating locations also provides opportunity for configuring systems for higher availability. Workload consolidation reduces the number and variety of components in the environment. It involves not only servers but also other physical elements such as tapes, disks, network devices and connections, software, operating systems, and peripherals. The number of processes and procedures are also reduced. With fewer hardware and software standards to manage, IT departments can more easily move and change systems, applications, and peripherals. Network performance is enhanced even further, as are security and availability. Common operating system environments allow more applications to share the same server, taking advantage of faster processors. Workload consolidation can be organized by application type, by operating system type, or by line of business. Enhancements to Microsoft infrastructure software are key drivers of consolidation in the standard Intel architecture server (SIAS) market space. For example, Windows 2000 offers greater scalability and incorporates workload balancing and multinode clustering capabilities. In addition, Exchange 2000 supports more users, allowing for consolidation in collaborative environments. These new capabilities will drive more IT organizations to look for consolidation opportunities as they upgrade. Transparent consolidation (including storage) involves pulling together a number of IT centers across a campus or network and implementing storage area networks to create a single set of resources. These environments will be highly automated, and their growth will be driven by the availability of high-speed, low-cost data networks. APPROACHING CONSOLIDATION Consolidation requires a plan that addresses business and technology, current opportunity, and future requirements. One of the greatest risks organizations face when considering consolidation is underestimating future hardware, software, and application requirements; therefore, careful assessment and continuing review are critical. Prior to embarking on detailed plans for consolidation, organizations should conduct a return on investment (ROI) analysis to understand the potential impact of associated costs and benefits. For evaluating IT investments, ROI, which assesses multiple benefits and costs, represents a more comprehensive metric than standard total cost of ownership (TCO). 5 Server Consolidation: Benefits,

6 The consolidation plan must be comprehensive and cover everything from the assessment of the current environment to the implementation and management of the consolidated environment to contingency planning. Assessing the current environment may sound easy, but quantifying and documenting all elements in an environment that has grown out of control may not be trivial. Getting this part right is essential to a successful plan. The process must include a qualitative review of the requirements of the affected business units or user groups. Companies must consider any political or organizational issues that may result from the consolidation effort. The consolidation plan should include system, storage, and network designs; specification of new processes; a schedule; and a plan that addresses how the new implementation will be rolled out and specifics of a contingency scenario. The implementation plan should cover physical deployment, training and organizational issues, programming work, data conversion, and a support plan for the new environment. In any streamlining effort there is the risk that something data, key applications, key processes could be overlooked. Of course, the costs associated with all elements of the plan must be clearly detailed. DELL AND SERVER CONSOLIDATION: CONFRONTING THE SIAS OPPORTUNITY IDC continues to see significant opportunity for infrastructure vendors in the server consolidation space. In 1999, IDC estimated the worldwide consolidation opportunity at $6.8 billion, with some 40% of this total related to infrastructure and 30% related to collaboration. As consolidation becomes more a part of the regular technology refresh cycle, the opportunity among highly distributed RISC and IA-32 systems has increased. Since 1999, the infrastructure market has grown by 50%, with much of the growth within the lower price bands. As a result, significant opportunity for consolidation exists in the SIAS market space. In addition, the typical workloads found in this space, such as collaborative, file and print, and LAN serving, are a natural fit for consolidation because they are easily divisible. Figure 3 illustrates the consolidation opportunity by operating system. Dell's product, business, and sales models are well suited to the way server consolidation is evolving. The company is well established in a market space with significant opportunity. Many Dell customers find themselves employing the typical SIAS model of having one server per application, a natural target for consolidation. With its broad family of PowerEdge servers and OpenManage software, Dell provides the underlying technology necessary to build a consolidated platform and create a common management infrastructure. Dell is poised to further take advantage of the opportunity as it launches an initiative to expand its consolidation offerings. The consolidation effort comprises the PowerEdge server platform technology, including newly introduced enterprise servers, ultra-dense server blades, OpenManage software, the Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool, and server consolidation services. Server Consolidation: Benefits, 6

7 Figure 3: Consolidation Opportunity by Operating System Source: IDC, 2002 Products Dell's portfolio of scalable PowerEdge servers provides a broad range of platform choices for consolidation. Each offers the serviceability/ manageability and flexibility required for consolidation solutions. Dell's rack-optimized servers are well suited to customers undertaking physical consolidation. These systems have been designed for environments where space is a premium, addressing reduced datacenter space requirements without sacrificing application throughput. Dell's line of rack-optimized PowerEdge models range from ultra-dense dual-processor servers 1U PowerEdge 1650 and 2U PowerEdge 2x50 to the enterprise-class 4U quad-processor PowerEdge 6650 and the eight-processor PowerEdge For consolidation of workloads, Dell positions its PowerEdge 6650, based on the latest Intel Xeon processor MP technology. Where in-box expandability and local storage are critical, along with performance, Dell offers other new Xeon -based models, the PowerEdge 4600 and PowerEdge The new highly dense server blades can further increase rack density up to four times and support significant physical consolidation of platforms. A modular architecture is easier to upgrade and adapt over time, allowing additional consolidation as the architecture evolves. The density of this new architecture makes it very suitable to physical consolidation projects. To support the management requirements, Dell offers its OpenManage software, which allows companies to establish common management processes and procedures. It is a key element in automating procedures as part of improving efficiency and service levels. 7 Server Consolidation: Benefits,

8 OpenManage provides remote administration and management from a single console. It is designed to provide central management capability across PowerEdge servers (both traditional and new blade designs) and switches and to support both deployment and ongoing systems operations. IDC believes improvements in software manageability tools are key drivers toward consolidation because they support the important process improvements that lead to greater efficiency and service. The Dell Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool Using the Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool, Dell can help its customers analyze their Microsoft file and print or collaborative environments and assess the consolidation opportunity. The tool builds a customized business case for consolidation by gathering information about the current and targeted environments and documenting the costs, benefits, and expected ROI associated with consolidating the server environment using Dell products and services. The tool provides baseline content for a consolidation plan, which is fundamental to any such effort. An important part of the plan is considering not only the current opportunity to consolidate the infrastructure but also the requirements of meeting future needs through "what-if" planning. The tool also identifies all costs associated with the consolidation project, including acquisition costs for hardware, software, and network capability; licensing costs; labor costs; any costs associated with physical movement of equipment; and any work that is needed to ready the datacenter to support the new environment. Services A full range of services is required for server consolidation, including design, planning, implementation, training, and ongoing support services of the server environment. Dell's portfolio of services follows the required services cycle highlighted above and includes feasibility assessments and envisioning services; performance and capacity evaluation at the application and user levels to support logical, workload, or physical consolidation; server and storage topology architecture and validation services; managed deployment, asset recovery, and migration to the new consolidated environment; and customer technical training and support services to address the growing requirements for mission-critical support. Beginning with Infrastructure Consolidation Readiness Assessment Services, the current environment is assessed and a road map/plan is provided for consolidation. The tools-based assessment includes a quantification of the existing technologies, capacity, and performance. Qualitative interviews with key constituencies identify critical business requirements and services. A detailed final report presents technology and process recommendations, technical and operational readiness, risk mitigation and improvement opportunity, and a financial analysis. Server Consolidation: Benefits, 8

9 The consolidation also includes "what-if" contingency planning, which looks at different scenarios and options that could play out over time. This capability helps companies identify the risks associated with the plan as well as possible outcomes based on different market and technology scenarios. Dell's Server and Storage Architecture Services help improve the efficiency of the consolidated environment through structured and collaborative workshop-based design methodologies. Dell provides performance and capacity evaluations of current systems and new requirements. The final development of the consolidated architecture may also include server and storage topology, application distribution and high-availability configurations, network infrastructure and operational recommendations, and systems management standards. Through its Premier Enterprise Support Service program, Dell offers tiered support offerings to help satisfy the increasing needs of server and storage customers across a range of mission-critical computing environments. The Dell Approach to Server Consolidation Dell's focus on server consolidation represents a pulling together of new hardware technology, OpenManage software, the new Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool, services, and the company's existing expertise, rather than a completely new effort. In fact, Dell has already worked with many of its customers to assess and streamline their infrastructures as part of the technology update process. One example is the state of Michigan's Family Independence Agency, which provides social services across the state. Its situation was not uncommon. The agency needed to provide a higher level of service to its users while reducing costs, but it was struggling with incompatible and outdated technology. With nearly 300 servers spread across 150 locations, support costs were skyrocketing, while the amount of time needed to process a user request was increasing. All of this was occurring during a time of increased demand for services and reduced state funding. Each field office had a legacy of supporting both Unix and Windows NT servers. A key part of the consolidation effort involved migrating the applications onto Windows 2000 platforms to reduce both the cost of hardware and the cost of maintaining two different operating system environments. In doing so, the agency was able to implement just one server per office, cutting the number of servers nearly in half. In addition to cutting costs and improving management efficiency, the agency has also seen significant improvements in service delivery. Transactions that took several minutes on the older systems now execute in seconds. As with many organizations, this consolidation effort was the first step in a longer-term strategy. The agency plans to build on its new infrastructure to centralize applications at its headquarters and make them available to field units. 9 Server Consolidation: Benefits,

10 CHALLENGES Several factors will affect the consolidation opportunity that Dell is addressing with its new initiative. IDC research has shown that, while organizations are strongly committed to upgrading their infrastructures, they are doing so at a gradual but steady pace. In some cases, end users have extended the typical retirement rate for a particular type of hardware and, as a result, slowed the deployment of new consolidated hardware. The upgrade process presents the opportunity for Dell to introduce the concept of consolidation and the technologies that enable it. A concerted and well-thought-out effort such as Dell's could accelerate adoption beyond the normal curve, particularly in the file and print and collaboration spaces targeted by Dell. Consolidation by its very nature may require hardware suppliers to cannibalize their own installed base in some instances. Suppliers are not always migrating users from competitive platforms. It can sometimes be a challenge for a vendor to help a customer understand the consolidation value proposition. This challenge can best be met through education to highlight the multiple options (e.g., logical, physical, workload, and transparent/storage) and to clearly articulate that consolidation is not just about reducing the number of servers. Dell must demonstrate not only its own enterprise capabilities but also the applications and benefits of the new technologies. The Server Consolidation ROI Analyst Tool and Infrastructure Consolidation Readiness Assessment Services indicate that Dell understands the need to educate the user base and has developed a comprehensive plan to tackle the issue head-on. The opportunity for consolidating file and print and collaborative infrastructure is significant. While this is an area of strength for Dell, it is important for the company to initially focus on this core competency. Consolidating core network, database, and collaborative infrastructure poses vastly different challenges than more sophisticated business processing and business intelligence solutions, which don't fit as nicely with Dell's current product and services mix or go-to-market model. CONCLUSION Rapid improvements in server performance and density, management software, and network bandwidth have made server consolidation a viable consideration for most IT environments. Faced with an ever-increasing demand to provide services, organizations can pursue consolidation as a way of gaining greater control over their IT resources, leading to efficiency gains and a more consistent level of service. Server Consolidation: Benefits, 10

11 Consolidation has become less of a one-time undertaking and more a part of the iterative process of updating the IT infrastructure to incorporate new technology and provide new types of service. As part of their regular technology refresh cycle, organizations should look for consolidation opportunities. There are current benefits to be gained from greater efficiency and longer-term benefits from having a technology foundation that is both flexible and easy to adapt. Dell's focus on server consolidation puts it in a position to ride this wave, as organizations review and renew their collaborative, file and print, and LAN server environments. By combining technology that is well suited for consolidation with ROI analysis and services that help with the assessment, implementation, and mission-critical support, Dell is adding value to the regular technology replacement effort by encouraging its customers to use the opportunity to improve their overall IT infrastructure. 11 Server Consolidation: Benefits,

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