Posted by Crystal Nichols on Fri, Jun 18, 2010 @ 09:38 AM
Today’s data center has to contend with more technology, more different applications and more physical servers than ever before. Simply managing your data center inventory can be a significant chore, and it’s one that your IT personnel are paid way too much to do. Add to that the fact that IT departments are being told their data center needs to provide higher levels of service at a lower cost, and you can see why many folks in IT management are extremely frustrated.
Fortunately, there are ways to lower costs and improve your data center. Technologies like virtualization are enabling data centers to avoid overutilization, at least to some degree, and make the most of the assets they have.
Data center automation is another way to cut costs while increasing service levels. Automation takes a variety of repetitive, manual tasks and turns them into automated processes.
What are the direct benefits of data center automation? Here are just a few:
• Data center automation increases compliance and standardization. If, for example, you have a manual patch process, you’re always going to run the risk that there is one old server in a corner somewhere that got missed. That server gets out of sync and then it has a ripple effect throughout the data center. Automating processes like patching allows you to ensure compliance.
• Data center automation increases server efficiency. Underutilization is a problem. In environments where virtualization hasn’t been effectively implemented, underutilization has been a failsafe of sorts to help insure service levels are maintained. When you implement automated virtualization processes in the data center, you can actually anticipate server and infrastructure demand and allow the system to adjust itself on the fly to meet real time needs.
• Data center automation uses staff more efficiently. You don’t really need to pay your server guru insane amounts of money in order to do a simple upgrade. Automation frees up your staff to focus on big-picture items such as new technologies, projects and finding even more ways for your data center to offer more services for lower costs.
Data center automation, in short, increases the reliability, performance and efficiency o your data center, while providing a lower TCO.
Lower Operational Costs Through Process Automation
Download the white paper for:
- An introduction to orchestration and process automation
- Making the business case for automation and orchestration
- Process Automation and Orchestration Use Case Scenarios
Posted by Crystal Nichols on Wed, Mar 10, 2010 @ 06:40 AM
Data center costs are higher than ever, despite the best efforts of data center managers and IT executives to make changes to the contrary. From greening the data center to offloading certain applications and services to a cloud environment, data center administrators are doing what they can to control costs. While not every effort meets with success, to ignore these steps means even more severely increased costs for the data
Here are 5 of the top ways to reduce your data center costs:
1. Energy reduction. Greening the data center is the first step in reducing your data center costs. The thing is that you need to be smart about the kind of greening you do. Depending on the location of the data center, for example, installing solar panels might not do much good. You may be better off, especially in Northern climates, to install more advanced cooling technology that makes use of the outside air, rather than something like solar panels. The key here is to get the most bang for your greening buck.
2. Virtualization. Virtualization is a great way to free up floor space at your data center. You reduce your power consumption (see #1 above) and you also reduce your ongoing operational costs of keeping some of your servers in production. Virtualization just makes sense in the data center. The key is to make sure that you’re really getting a benefit from virtualization, and that you can maintain the same kinds of performance levels with virtualization that you had prior to the virtualization process.
3. Cloud computing. Like virtualization, utilizing the cloud will reduce the footprint of your data center as well as power consumption. You’ll get similar benefits from cloud computing that you’ll get from virtualization, but you also incur the ongoing service costs as well. Here again, you need to do a cost analysis to make sure you’re really saving money.
4. Rationalize your hardware. Take out systems that are old and underutilized and move their workload to more efficient systems. You can reduce your server count by anywhere from five to 20 percent just by doing this.
5. Consolidate sites. If you have multiple data center sites, you can consolidate them into a smaller number of larger sites. This will, in the long term, provide you with significant savings both in terms of facilities and in terms of increased opportunity for things like virtualization.
Lowering Operational Costs Through Automation
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Posted by Crystal Nichols on Wed, Jan 27, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
Down economy or not, IT managers have never had a blank check with which to meet an organization’s needs. As time goes on, IT managers have to deal with increased demand for computing and information services, all while being asked to cut costs and create grater justification for expenditures.
One of the areas IT departments are asked to cut back in is operational costs for their data centers. There are a few steps involved in reducing data center costs while maintaining the kinds of service levels your organziation has come to know and expect:
1. Look at Energy Management. One of the areas most data centers can reduce costs in is the area of energy management. You can set the temperature of your data center to 24 degrees Celsius, in most cases. Another way to reduce your energy costs is to use outside air to cool the data center, as blowing in outside air is much less expensive than air conditioning. Even implementing a server-based energy management solution will save you significant money in the long run.
2. Rationalize data center hardware. You need to get a clear picture of the equipment you've got in your data center and what each piece does. Doing so can save you as much as ten percent of your hardware costs. You want to make sure that the machines you have are being used effectively, and you want to get rid of those that aren't. In turn, this will lower your support and maintenance costs, and it will also open up new possibilities for virtualization.
3. Consider virtualization. Virtualization will help to control energy costs, but it will also reduce your capital expenditures and maintenance costs. Effective use of existing technology can reduce energy use by 80 percent or more, and it can also reduce floor space requirements.
4. Renegotiate. On a regular basis, you need to renegotiate all of your purchase contracts. This will include lease agreements, hardware contracts, maintenance or support contracts, software agreements and anything else. Get rid of the ones that are too expensive, and talk to vendors about lower payment schedules for the rest.
5. Manage people costs effectively. The largest single cost for most data centers is its people. Review your staffing levels. Take a look at the specific skills that your data center will need for the next 24 months. Make use of outsourcing if it's an option for your business.
6. Be patient. If possible, delay the procurement of new data center assets. Instead of purchasing new equipment, extend the life of existing servers by renegotiating their service contracts and maintenance support.
7. Be ready to justify your expenditures. The days when IT sort of had free reign because executives were dazzled by technology have been gone for over a decade. Still, some things you just have to have. Make sure you're ready to justify every cost, especially during times that are on the rough side economically.
Lower Operational Costs Through Process Automation
Enterprise IT organizations are aggressively deploying virutalization technologies to reduce operational costs, increase IT asset utilization, and improve IT's ability to satisfy business objectives.
Download the white paper for:
- An introduction to orchestration and process automation
- Making the business case for automation and orchestration
- Process Automation and Orchestration Use Case Scenarios