The old model of server management has proved inefficient
In the past, as IT personnel struggled to provide flexible environments with sufficient storage, many implemented widely distributed heterogeneous systems. In addition, the decentralization of many companies resulted in purchases of servers for individual sites, each of which had a specific responsibility such as e-mail or file sharing. And all servers, whether onsite or off, had to be managed separately.
The resultant server sprawl, along with tighter budgets and staffing constraints in recent years, has created a real crisis for IT departments. Today, many businesses face the problem of having too many servers to manage and maintain and not enough time or manpower. The result is that IT personnel spend much of their time tending to highest-priority, immediate issues and cannot focus on normal and necessary maintenance tasks such as patch management, backup and performance tuning. As a result, critical systems are put at risk.
Rein in the chaos through server consolidation
There are four basic types of server consolidation, each of which can save you time and money:
Logical
In logical consolidation, you don't actually relocate or consolidate any servers, but you do create a unified management system across your servers. This typically involves installing management hardware and software that enables consistent, centralized control of your servers. This type of consolidation requires the least effort but can have a noticeable payoff in reduction of administration times.
Centralized
Rather than maintaining servers at various branch offices, you move all your servers to a central location. This simplifies maintenance duties, data backups and implementation of security measures. Using centralization along with blade servers, you can cut total cost of ownership (TCO) by using less space and sharing racks.
Physical
In this scenario, you reduce the number of servers in use by merging your workload onto fewer servers. There are two ways to do this. The first is to take a group of servers that are performing the same job but are individually underutilized and combine those operations onto fewer servers that are now operating at higher capacity. The second type of physical consolidation involves purchasing a new, much bigger server and consolidating the workloads from multiple, smaller-capacity servers onto it.
Operational
Operational or application consolidation runs multiple platforms and diverse applications on a single server (or cluster). This technique uses partitioning and virtualization to run many "virtual" servers on a single machine. This makes efficient use of system resources while minimizing upkeep tasks and TCO. Although the most complex option, this approach can also have the greatest payoff.
Maximize consolidation with a blade server environment
Blades are housed in a chassis that can handle 16 or more of these servers. A standard 42U server rack, for example, can handle in excess of 48 blades. Blades are flexible, easy to centralize and offer an easy upgrade path by allowing you to pop additional blades into the chassis as more capacity is needed.
Blades reduce overhead costs, simplify management tasks and offer easy clustering and failover capabilities. In fact, implementing a blade system allows you to unify management tools, move all of your servers to a central location, cluster servers and allocate processing power to specific applications as needed. Blades also allow you to create partitions to handle different operating systems and applications. With increasingly powerful hardware, including affordable x86-based 64-bit servers from major vendors, blades allow you to run larger workloads or more applications on fewer servers.
Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)
Because blade servers are modular, they can scale as your needs dictate, enabling you to make the most of your IT investment. Thanks to shared power and cooling sources, blade servers consume less power than rack-mounted servers. This can result in significant savings in power costs.
The physical reduction in size and number of servers has tangible benefits for your data center as well. Less equipment occupies less floor space, which translates to significant savings on real estate costs.
Consolidating all key applications on a central server also simplifies daily backups and eases disaster recovery because you have only one system to manage. Finally, because blade servers are managed via browser, the costs of keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) cables and switches are eliminated.
Centralize management of your blade network
Complement the streamlined management of blade servers with centralized network control. Advances in router and switch technology can give your business increased connectivity and greater control over network security. CDW has a complete line of routers and switches to ensure that your network offers security and ease of management.
As you plan for a consolidated server infrastructure, let CDW's experts help you plan, purchase and implement a solution that works for your environment.
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After performing server consolidation:
It's important to remember that anytime you modify your server infrastructure, you need to closely monitor its operation and evaluate how those modifications impact your day-to-day operations. Here are some tips to help you do this:
• Test, diagnose and fix any issues that crop up. Test response times, transactions per second and concurrent user loads to ensure that your new infrastructure meets your performance needs.
• Assess your backup and recovery requirements and determine if you need any additional software licenses for your backup servers.
• Review your new infrastructure on a regular basis to ensure that service levels and business objectives are being met.
• Re-evaluate your IT staffing assignments. With fewer servers to manage, you can devote more time to patch management, configuration, capacity and performance monitoring, and problem analysis and resolution.
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CDW Leasing
CDW offers four different leasing terms with three end-of-lease options. Leasing specialists are available to assist you with quotes, account information or any questions that you have. To learn more, contact your CDW account manager today.
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