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Dt Center Efciency in theVirtl Er: Three Key Steps
S 2: Smlfy
A UBM white pAper
auguST 2010
Broht to yo by
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Defnin Dt Center Efciency:
Simpliyin Throh Virtliztion
S 2: SmlfyCompanies standardize, simpliy, and auto-
mate to better serve business needs. By making
inrastructure and data centers more ecient,
IT departments make better use o corporate
capital and resources — reeing money or
innovation that would otherwise have gone to
maintenance. Eciency eorts also result in a
better return on technology investment.
Standardization is an important rst step,
but that step alone isn’t enough. Understanding
the need or simplication requires a quick look at
how data centers developed in the past 15 years.
Te Grot o Compeity
In the 1990s and early 2000s, corporations
invested in new business systems that came
to market promising levels o eciency never
beore seen. Installations o these separate pro-
prietary packages quickly turned into unctional
silos. Complicating the number o systems were
the acquisitions and mergers that allowed cor-
porations to swell in size, but brought streams
o additional IT systems that had to be digested.
As a result, companies developed patch-
works o proprietary technologies. Getting con-
trol over inrastructure and data centers became
nearly impossible because the collection o hard-
ware, sotware, and tools was so varied and
diversied. The mix made it impossible to e-
ciently use technical expertise or combine pur-
chasing suciently to maximize leverage.
Furthermore, internal politics began to
aect IT decision making. When technology is
standard, there’s less need to pay experts whospecialize in specic hardware or sotware pack-
ages. No specialist wants to be turned into some-
one exercising commodity skills.
Stadardiatio: A First Step
Standardization can help solve some o these
problems. But even i a company manages to
standardize everything in its IT arsenal by swap-
ping out the oddball hardware, operating sys-
Rapid cages i te bsiess eviromet
ave pt tremedos pressre o corpo-
ratios ad teir IT irastrctres. Tog
goba competitio reqired e eves o
operatioa perormace ie keepig costs
o. Eectives, cstomers, regators, ad
ivestors became ever more demadig. Ad
te te ecoomic roer coaster took every-
oe o qite a ride.
At rst, eterprises tred to aster admore poer ardare. Bt byig a com-
pay’s ay ito better operatios is epe-
sive ad igy ieciet. Compaies tat
tried qicky ra ot o room or e eqip-
met ad te poer ad cooig to r it.
Some corporatios eperimeted it
simpiyig teir irastrctre: some server
cosoidatio ere, a itte virtaiatio
tere. Bt tat became jst aoter ay to
sped more moey o IT. To acieve teir
bsiess goas ad ock te vae o teir
irastrctres, compaies eeded a more
discipied ad strctred ay to eimiate
ieciecies. A groig mber ave tred
to a tree-step process: stadardie, simpiy,
ad atomate.
Tis istamet, te secod i a tree-
part series, epores o simpicatio
eteds te vae o data ceter stad-ardiatio eorts ad orms a stabe, eciet
base tat ca be sed to spport atomatio.
By tackig eac o te tree steps, i
order, eterprises ca esre tat teir ira-
strctres provide te feibiity to meet cr-
ret ad tre demads, te cost-eective-
ess to etract ROI rom eistig tecoogy
ivestmets, ad a odatio or e tec
ivestmets to carry eciecy orard.
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uBM TECHWEB WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
tems, tools, and applications or their sanctioned
equivalents, it may still end up with a compli-
cated, convoluted, and expensive mess that ails
to deliver sucient value.
For example, in its 2009 Q4 global ERP con-
solidation survey, Forrester Research ound that12 percent o the companies interviewed had
rom ve to nine global instances o their ERP
packages. An additional 14 percent had 10 or
more instances, and a th o respondents didn’t
know the number.1
Clearly, even standard sotware doesn’t
ensure ecient deployment. And standardiza-
tion only helps i there is a standard to move to.
More than 25 percent o the companies Forrester
interviewed ran 100 or more custom applications
globally; 37 percent ran rom ve to 99.
Problems acing a modern enterprise that
are beyond the power o standardization include:
• Ecess capita ivestmet. Having too many
servers, storage systems, and network seg-
ments means low utilization o existing capac-
ity. A company runs more systems, oten to
accommodate rare peak workloads, than is
necessary to do its everyday work. That means
signicant capital is tied up or no reason; it’s
the equivalent o building a our-lane highway
or a one-stoplight town.
• Spra. A company that runs ineciently
needs more inrastructure as a result. All those
servers, storage units, and networking equip-
ment must live somewhere, and the physical
real estate needed costs money to lease and
maintain. Not only does the corporation tie upcapital, but it increases acilities expenses.
• Poer ad cooig. The more powerul the
equipment, the more energy it consumes.
Power and cooling requirements have increased
over time, and existing data centers were never
designed with such needs in mind. As busi-
ness grows, demands on IT systems increase.
Without greater capacity utilization, corpora-
tions must expand the amount o equipment
they run. Eventually, they may run out o space,
power, and cooling, requiring the company to
build new data centers.
• Reddat admiistratio. Even with stan-
dardized equipment, there is only so much
work each administrator can do. As the
amount o equipment grows, enterprise IT
departments must hire additional people to
adequately cover administration needs, unnec-
essarily infating head count.
• Ifeibe resorce depoymet. In theory,
standardized equipment and sotware can
move easily rom one part o a company to
FlExIBlE VIRTuAlIzATIOn MAnAGEMEnT wITh DEll AIM
Virtaiatio gives compaies eormos feibiity i matcig irastrctread data ceter resorces to bsiess eeds. hoever, IT eeds to combiemaagemet processes ad toos to take advatage o tese e capabiities. Ipart, tat meas preservig feibiity ad coice i admiistratio. Corporatioseed te reedom to coose amog VMare, Microsot, Citri or oter providersere it makes sese – or e mergers ad acqisitios itrodce dieretvirtaiatio patorms. De’s Advaced Irastrctre Maager (AIM) preserveste vita eemet o coice — it orks it VMare, Microsot’s hyper-V, adCitri, itegratig smooty it teir ypervisor admiistra¬tio eviromets.
AIM sotare eabes te IT irastrctre to respod iteigety ad feibyto sitig demads. It moves orkoads ad appicatios seamessy ad ato-maticay betee devices i respose to ser demad.
I additio, AIM makes it possibe to:• Manage physical and virtual resources with a single solution
• Move workloads seamlessly across hardware platforms for increasedavaiabiity ad scaabiity
• Transform physical servers with virtualization-like functionality, includingatomated aiover, dyamic oad baacig ad bsiess cotiity
• Decrease the time and personnel required to deploy hardware and to getappicatios p ad rig it a repeatabe, scaabe rameork orardare impemetatio
• Integrate existing servers, storage and network devices into an AIMsotio to eted te se ie o eistig ivestmets.
For more iormatio abot AIM, go to ttp://cotet.de.com/s/e/eterprise/irastrctre-maagemet.asp.
1 hamerma, Pa D. Te State O ERP 2009: Market Forces Drive Speciaiatio, Cosoidatio, Ad Iovatio, november, 2009.
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uBM TECHWEB WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
another. In reality, the cost o redeployment,
usually involving an upgrade o capability,
is high enough that IT departments typi-
cally choose to buy more equipment instead,
increasing the amount o excess capacity.
• Maagemet compeity. A byproduct o
equipment bloat is more complicated inra-
structure management, because more copies
o management tools are needed. Greater
complexity requires more eort to locate sys-
tems, provision services or new business appli-
cations, and perorm basic administrative tasks.
The additional eort required ends up delaying
the underlying business processes and needs.
The corporation becomes slower to react and
innovate, damaging its competitiveness.
•
netork strai. The more servers andstorage pumping data over a network, the
more complex the architecture, routing, and
control o trac. The more complex the data
fow, the more dicult it is to run the network
eciently, which can aect applications and,
by extension, corporate operations.
• Taed strategic resorces. As existing appli-
cation portolios and associated inrastructure
consume resources to “keep the lights on,”
less money, time, people, and attention are let
or strategic investment and growth.
• Migratio compicatios. As old hardware
comes to the end o its lie, unit-or-unit
replacement requires additional investment in
underutilized systems and results in disrup-
tive transer o data and applications. To keep
things as they are, even with standardization,
means inevitable periodic intererence with the
very business processes and activities that the IT
inrastructure is supposed to enable.
Good economic times can mask the ineciency
o an IT inrastructure and data center. But
economic challenges bring the problems to
light. IT consultancy The Hackett Group recently
tested the operational eciency o large corpo-rations by examining whether companies could
proportionately scale their sales, general and
administrative (SG&A) costs as revenue varied
by 15 percent—a condition many businesses
aced during the recent economic turndown.
“Three-quarters o the global 2000 companies
[we tested] ailed,” says the group’s IT advisory
practice leader Honorio Padron, in part because
5 TIPS FOR SIMPlIFICATIOn SuCCESSFor greatest sccess, simpicatio mst ivove ve dieret areas, eac it
its o madate:
1. Bdget. Sped oy at is ecessary to create a irastrctre tat i
provide te bsiess it te capabiities it eeds today to gro to meet
tre demads.
2. Arcitectre. Desig a irastrctre it as sma a ootprit as possibe
to deiver te ecessary comptig ad commicatig capacities ie
maitaiig te abiity to move irastrctre ito te tre itot ve-
dor ock-i.
3. Istaatio. Cage e eeded, bt strctre te simpicatio process
to eave i pace tat ic ca remai.
4. Operatios. Eectivey se peope ad toos to cotro operatios cetray
i te most eciet ay.
5. Processes. Create a oistic approac to te process o maagig te etire
irastrctre ad do’t ocs soey o te idivida parts.
By addressig a ve aspects, simpicatio creates a dyamic ad agie ira-
strctre tat aos a compay to more directy matc tecica resorces to
bsiess eeds at ay give time ad ca ree p to a o a compay’s IT
bdget.
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uBM TECHWEB WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
IT expenses made up hal the total SG&A cost.
Padron notes that one measure o com-
plexity is the number o dierent applications
a company supports per thousand users. The
greater the number o applications, the more
complex the inrastructure must be. “World classcompanies that have done…transormative strat-
egies, including the redesign o the service deliv-
ery model, show 17 applications per thousand
users,” Padron says. “A company that has not
done that will have 28 applications per thousand
users. It’s almost two-to-one.”
A Compreesive, Pased Approac
Simplication is the hallmark o intelligent cor-
porate inrastructure because it enables agility
and reduces unnecessary expenses. Technically,
simplication is a three-phase process: rational-
ization, consolidation and virtualization.
Rationalization involves determining what the
company needs or its operations and designing
an architecture accordingly. According to a June
2009 Gartner press release on data center costs,
rationalization and consolidation aid asset and
inventory management, lower annual energy costs
(typically by $400 per server per year), and yield a
5 to 10 percent saving in overall hardware costs.2
Consolidation involves reconguring servers,
networks, storage, and applications to accom-
modate the rationalized design and eliminate
redundant hardware, sotware, and data centers.
Gartner estimates that data center consolidation
will typically save rom 5 percent to 15 percent o
the overall data center budget.
Virtualization involves separating physicalresources rom virtual processes and treating
servers, storage, and networks as pools o capac-
ity deployed as necessary. Virtualization can also
ree additional hardware or urther consolida-
tion. According to Gartner, users see net savings
within two years, with server energy use down by
82 percent and foor space savings o 86 percent.
When a company undertakes rationaliza-
tion, consolidation, and virtualization, it makes its
IT systems more eective in a number o ways,
answering the problems that standardization
alone still leaves. The benets enterprises derive
rom simplication eorts include:
• Eciet capacity. A company has the right
number o servers, storage systems, and net-
work segments and needs signicantly less
hardware than beore, which rees capital. By
reducing the amount o equipment, IT also
constrains data trac and demands on man-
agement processes.
• Redced aciity reqiremets. Reducing the
amount o equipment also decreases space,
7 CRITICAl QuESTIOnS whEn ChOOSInG VEnDORSVedors ted to se simiar caims e tey tak abot simpicatio,
particary te virtaiatio pase. Coose te rigt vedor, ad te com-
pay ca move ito virtaiatio at a measred pace, icreasig its com-
petitiveess, recaimig resorces, ad oerig epeses. here are some
qestios to ask to ep evaate te reaity beid te ype:
• Does the vendor base its hardware on a standard Intel x86 chip architecture?
• Do the servers run third-party operating systems, or does the vendor pro-
vide a proprietary operating system?
• Do the vendor’s management tools work with a variety of hypervisors?
• Do the vendor’s tools manage a variety of hardware, or can they only man-
age equipment from one vendor?• Does the vendor rely on a vertically integrated product stack, or is it com -
patible with products from a variety of vendors?
• Will you be locked into the vendor’s architecture, or do you create your
own infrastructure architecture and work the vendor’s approach into yours?
• How much of the equipment that you already own and run will be you able
to use?
2 Kmar, Rakes. Garter Oties Seve Practica ways to Save Costs i te Data Ceter , Je, 2009.
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power, and cooling requirements.
• Rigt-sied admiistratio. When a com-
pany radically reduces the amount o equip-
ment it runs, it pares the degree o administra-
tion required. IT can reduce headcount or even
redeploy people to activities that create more
value or the company.
• Feibiity. A company turns its servers, stor-
age, and network into resource pools that it
can assign quickly and as needed to best sup-
port business requirements at any given time.
Provisioning resources or new business needs,
migrating end-o-lie equipment, perorming
system recovery, or integrating new technolo-
gies become easy tasks.
Battig Poitics
Simplication must transcend technology Because
the business as a whole drives IT, true simplica-
tion must start with the business processes that
drive the need or applications and inormation.
That requires the process o rationalization; that
is, determining what sotware and hardware
the company actually needs to run its business.
“The planning and design is the most crucial
piece,” says Irwin Teodoro, director o engineer-
ing and systems integration at IT consultancy
Laurus Technologies. Teodoro works with many
healthcare organizations, and sotware or that
industry oten has poor virtualization support.
“There could be supportability issues that pro-
hibit that application rom going to a virtualized
environment. Not every platorm or application
is a candidate or virtualization.” The question
comes down to what problem a company wants
to solve.
Simplication starts with analyzing the busi-
ness problem, including what the companywants to attain and how its organization works.
It means, in part, looking beyond unctional silos.
Without a holistic view, each silo tries to optimize
its own perormance. But the result can hurt the
perormance o the company as a whole.
Planning IT rationalization and consolidation
involves crossing organizational boundaries in
technical and business silos. Corporate IT depart-
ments tend to conceive o their inrastructures
in several main categories: servers, storage, net-
works, and applications. Each technical area has
its own managers, employees, budget, authority,
and processes – in short, its own organizational
silo independent rom that o the others.
“Dierent IT teams who are using discon-nected processes, maybe a mix o manual or
automated tools, are each doing their own thing
in terms o deploying apps, the database, the OS,
security, the network connections, and storage
resources,” according to Mary Johnston Turner,
IDC research director or enterprise systems man-
agement, in an April 21, 2010 InformationWeek
webcast. The result is that getting anything done
that requires cooperation is a chore.
Then there is the organization o the busi-
ness itsel. Just as IT has its silos, the business
side also has silos based on corporate unction,
business unit, department, and even project.
When the technical and business departments
interact, the already ragmented direction and
control over inrastructure and data centers only
gets worse, making it even more dicult or a
corporation to extract value rom its inrastruc-
ture investments.
Companies must address these organiza-
tional issues, including managing the politics.
According to The Hackett Group’s Padron, the
recently dicult economic climate has made
it easier to move beyond individual objections
and restructure inrastructure. “People are say-
ing, ‘Forget the cultural issues that kept us rom
consolidating in the past,’” he says, because
businesses can no longer aord to operate that
way. Padron says The Hackett Group has seen
rationalization and consolidation strategies accel-
erate signicantly over the last two years.
“For instance, in 2004, only about 24 per-
cent o the companies [we surveyed] had shared
services with two or more unctional areas in
it, like IT and nance or procurement or HR,”
Padron says. “Now that number is about 65
percent. That means those companies moved
in the direction o standardization o process,which allows standardization o application,
which allows you to move into standardization
o inrastructure.”
The challenges these silos pose underscore
the need or rationalizing choices o sotware
and hardware, consolidating inrastructure,
and, most importantly, virtualizing. By doing so,
a company can eectively wrest control o serv-
ers, networks, and storage rom individual silos
uBM TECHWEB WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
Simplifcation is the hallmark o intelligent corpo-
rate inrastructure because it enables agility and reduces unnecessary
expenses.
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uBM WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
7
and turn them into pools o corporate assets that
can be assigned to specic needs as necessary.
However, companies must take care when
speciying their rationalized platorm. Vendors
that may claim to have open products might
eectively be proprietary. For example, two ven-dors can base their servers on Intel x86 architec-
ture. One o the hardware lines could work with
third-party products while the other requires that
the corporation source everything rom the one
vendor. I a company chooses the second option,
it eectively locks itsel in with a specic vendor
and limits itsel to the third-party applications
that are compatible with that vendor’s approach
to virtualization.
Three problems result rom vendor lock-in.One is the realization o the worst risk analysis
ear: I the company aces a problem in moving a
silo to the new technology, it may nd it impos-
sible to return to the previous state.
InTEl SIMPlIFIES VIRTuAlIzATIOnAs compaies tr to virtaiatio or orkoad cosoidatio ad to
improve tiiatio, tey eed to cosider te icreased etork badidt
ad storage demads tat come it iger server tiiatio, as e as tepotetia or virta macie spra ad maagemet compeity.
hardare-assisted Ite® Virtaiatio Tecoogy (Ite VT) eps pro-
mote eciet data ceter grot. wit spport rom te processor, cipset,
BIOS, ad eabig sotare, Ite VT ofoads orkoads to system ard-
are, ic eabes virtaiatio sotare to provide more streamied
sotare stacks ad “ear ative” perormace caracteristics. Ite VT simpi-
es data ceters i tree key areas:
• Virta macie migratio. Ite VT FeMigratio eabes feibe orkoad
migration and performance optimization across 32-bit and 64-bit operat-
ig eviromets. Data ceter maagers ad system admiistrators ca set
simpe res or virta macie migratio based o time o day, orkoad,
or memory reqiremets. I cojctio it VM toos sc as VMare’s
Eaced VMotio, FeMigratio aso protects irastrctre ivestmets i
xeo processors by providig arcitectra compatibiity rom oe geeratio
to aoter.
• uied etorks based o 10 Gigabit Eteret (GbE). Faster processors,
virtaiatio o appicatios ad icreases i virta macie desity a
raise te potetia or I/O botteecks. A ied etork abric based o
Ite Eteret 10GbE ca simpiy irastrctres ad oer TCO ie posi-
tioig data ceters to meet tre badidt eeds. Ite 10GbE icreases
Eteret speed to 10Gbps, oers poer reqiremets ad redces te m-
ber o ports, sitces ad cabes eeded. 10GbE it Data Ceter Bridgig
improves qaity o service e data ad storage sare te same etork.
Ad becase Ite Eteret 10GbE bids o eistig toos ad processes,
costs are oer ta it oter tecoogies. Iteroperabiity it eistig
etork irastrctre ad spport rom may eqipmet vedors ao a
ig degree o feibiity i etork desig.• Covergece o servers ad storage. As storage eeds ad perormace
epectatios gro, storage arcitectres pt ever greater demads o ma-
agemet systems. Storage ad comptig systems are covergig to address
tese eeds. May storage vedors, icdig EMC, are coosig Ite xeo
processors as teir arcitectre o coice.
For more detais abot Ite virtaiatio tecoogies, go to .ite.
com/tecoogy/virtaiatio/server/ide.tm.
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8
STuDIES In SIMPlIFICATIOnhere’s a ook at tree compaies tat ave pt simpicatio to ork i teir
eviromets:
De, a $53 biio compay tat’s oe o te eadig PC maactrers i
te ord, od itse it te same IT probems may giat corporatios
ace. ne eqipmet depoymet took as mc as 45 days rom order to
istaatio. Te compay as rig ot o space, poer, ad cooig or
servers. Ot o tes o tosads o servers, tree-qarters stayed der 20
percet tiiatio. De’s IT departmet orked it te compay’s cost-
ig arm to deveop a strategy to combat tese ieciecies. Te compay
rst stadardied o Ite xeo-poered De PoerEdge R900 servers ad
Eqalogic PS5000xV storage area etorks, te simpied by virtaiig
tosads o servers, a cotroed by VMare. Te compay’s eorts paid
o i cosoidatio ratios o p to 20 to 1 ad a 30 percet jmp i tiia-
tio. De saved a estimated $29 miio i ardare prcases, redced
space, cooig, ad poer costs, ad srak te time or e depoymets
rom 45 days to 4.
Emerso, a 120-year-od $22 biio tecoogy compay, eeded fei-
be ad agie commicatios ad comptig to spport a og-term grot
strategy. hoever, te egacy IT system cosisted o impemetatio sios
tat eteded to 135 data ceters. Te compay impemeted a cosoida-
tion strategy with Dell PowerEdge M610 and PowerEdge M710 blade servers
sig Ite® Xenon processor 5500 and 5600 series architecture and Dell/EMC
CX4-960 storage area networks. The PowerEdge servers reduced footprint
by a. Emerso redced a te data ceters do to or ad eimiated
about 3,600 servers in the process. Because of the new servers, the com-
pay’s e goba prodctio ceter i St. lois oered its eergy se by31 percet. I additio, te IT departmet epects to decrease te operatig
costs o its widos server eviromet by 15 percet a year.
PACCAR, a $7.6 billion transportation company that manufactures
premier trck brads, ad eary 1,000 servers spit amog severa goba
ocatios it 15 percet to 25 percet aa grot. Te compay ad
to pt cosiderabe resorces ito maiteace, ic diverted attetio
ad resorces rom iovatio. PACCAR ired De Goba Irastrctre
Costig Services to ep deveop a simpicatio pa sig Ite xeo-
powered Dell PowerEdge 2950 and 6850 servers, with VMware running 15
to 20 virta macies o eac server, ad De/EMC Cx700 storage area
etorks. Cosoidatio redced te mber o servers by a, ad te cost
o eac virta server is abot a tat o a pysica oe, bt te rea adva-tage to PACCAR came rom improved IT eciecy. For eampe, te SAn
systems dropped appicatio recovery time rom ve ors to 20 mites.
Te IT departmet ca o create a virta test ad deveopmet eviro-
met i a e mites. Ad virtaiatio o makes it possibe to provisio
resorces or a e appicatio i abot 20 mites.
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uBM WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
The second is the potential o uture incom-
patibility with emerging standards. Unless the
proprietary vendor embraces the new tech-
nologies, companies may nd themselves unable
to use them. New capabilities that could urther
simpliy IT operations or systems administrationwould be incompatible with the proprietary
inrastructure.
The third problem is cost. Open systems
drive down cost because o competition. Closed
systems leave a company at the mercy o the
vendor as well as o employees with highly spe-
cialized experience, consultants, and third party
sotware rms that provide scarce goods and can
charge accordingly. That increases budget rather
than reducing it and reeing money or other
uses. To truly simpliy, corporations must pick
technology that preserves fexibility and options.
Icremeta Virtaiatio
Beore virtualization, companies typically
achieved only 36 percent utilization, accord-
ing to inormation IDC’s Turner presented in
the InformationWeek webinar. Within the next
two years, IDC expects utilization to rise to 67
percent.
By the end o 2010, IDC expects more than
hal o all workloads to run on virtual servers.
Yet, IDC projects that number will only rise to 69
percent by 2013.3
Initial virtualization and consolidation eorts
go or the low-hanging ruit—servers that can be
virtualized and consolidated with at low risk. And
consolidation can bring welcome early gains,
especially now that vendors such as Intel have
overcome limitations that had previously created
system latencies, limited server utilization rates,
or let gaps in virtual machine availability and
connectivity (see “Intel Simplies Virtualization”
on page 7).
Once that initial stage is complete, compa-
nies tend to hit a virtualization wall; urther prog-
ress means driving virtualization into proprietary
silos, which is a riskier undertaking. Furthermore,not everything can be virtualized. For example,
many organizations in the healthcare sector,
according to Laurus Technology’s Teodoro, are
just beginning to adopt virtualization. “It’s a
non-competitive industry to begin with,” he says.
With relatively ew vendors and hospitals oten
serving independent sets o customers, there
was ar less pressure than in other industries to
become more ecient, and so vendors didn’t
write their sotware packages to be compatible
with virtualization. Hospitals were eectively
locked into whatever packages they already
used and couldn’t easily transition to another
vendor’s oerings. However, even in healthcare,
with national pressure to reorm practices and
costs, the days o dedicated servers are coming
to an end. “We’re having conversations with
healthcare companies now that you had with
non-healthcare companies three or our years
ago,” Teodoro says. As the customers demand
virtualization, vendors will begin to comply.
In healthcare, as in nearly every other
industry, the rip-and-replace approach o
changing everything at once is unrealistic.
Enterprises must approach virtualization in a
pragmatic and phased approach, targeting
high-reward and low-risk areas or initial
implementations and then continuing into other
areas as sotware and project schedules allow.Instead o rip-and-replace, intelligent enter-
prises opt or a strategy o expand-and-embrace,
incorporating the inrastructure in pieces until
everything comes under the virtualization
umbrella.
For most companies, that means an incre-
mental and circular process o standardizing
some portion o the inrastructure, virtualiz-
ing that part, and then using reed resources
3 Josto Trer, Mary. Automation and Integration Vital or Efcient Data Center Operations, IDC wite Paper, Apri 2010.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
UtilizationBefore
Virtualization
UtilizationToday
Plannedin TwoYears
N=258 Source: IDC Virtualization Multiclient Study
67%
36%
56%
Server utiiatio Beore adAter Virtaiatio
X86 Servers
8/8/2019 AST-0006167 IW - Data Center Efficiency- Step 2 - Simplify
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ast-0006167-iw-data-center-efficiency-step-2-simplify 10/10
uBM WHITE PaPER | Data Ceter Eciecy i te Virta Era: Tree Key Steps
10to repeat the process in another part o the
inrastructure. Not only does this incremental
approach allow a company to work within its
budget and resource limits, but it also lets the
company start with the most receptive operating
silos and, over time, bring pressure to bear on
less receptive ones.
Simpy Eciet
Enterprises that approach simplication with the
rationalization, consolidation, and virtualization
approach in mind can ree resources and reduce
expenses. Even more importantly, building on
open, standard technologies allows them to
preserve and even expand choices in how to run
their business.
The built-in scalability and fexibility oered
by a standardized, simplied data center inra-
structure enables IT to respond quickly to business
needs and enables the enterprise to take advan-
tage o changing opportunities. Furthermore,
simplication prepares the business to make
the most o automation. Read how in the nal
installment o this series.
Dell Inc. (NaSDaQ: DELL) listens to cstomers nd delivers innovtive technoloy nd services they vle. a ledin loblsystems nd services compny niqely enbled by its direct bsiness model, Dell is No. 33 on the Fortne 500 list oameric’s lrest compnies. For more inormtion, visit www.dell.com or to commnicte directly with Dell vi vrietyo online chnnels, o to http://www.dell.com/converstions. To et Dell news direct, visit http://www.dell.com/RSS.
Intel (NaSDaQ: INTC), the world leder in silicon innovtion, develops technoloies, prodcts nd inititives to con-tinlly dvnce how people work nd live. additionl inormtion bot Intel is vilble t www.intel.com/pressroom
nd blos.intel.com.
DEll AnD InTEl
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
201320122011201020092008200720062005
8.7
13.9
22.4
33.0
42.1
51.3
59.4
65.168.6
( % )
Source: IDC Virtualization Multiclient Study, 2009
wordide Istaed workoads Virtaied by Year