Data Center Consolidation: Should I or Shouldn't I?

Utilizing virtualization to consolidate servers and storage arrays is becoming an especially hot topic among mid-sized and larger organizations. As IT teams update older, legacy systems, virtualization gives them the flexibility to more efficiently utilize existing assets as well as reduce the number of total devices in operation.

Virtualization shifts dispersed, often single purpose application servers to a centralized resource of computing power that typically requires a smaller number of total devices. The widespread availability of fiber networks and cloud infrastructure has accelerated this trend. But, just because consolidation is a viable architectural alternative, does that mean IT managers should take the plunge?

Well, as a politician once said, where you stand depends on where you sit.

Typically, data centers become fragmented for one of the following reasons: a company has completed one or more acquisitions and left the acquired organization’s data center in place, an organization has grown significantly and simply created a new data center every time it opened a new facility, or an IT team realizes its data center is running out of space and/or electricity and decides to open another one.

Set Clear Goals

As with any major IT initiative, to maximize ROI on the project, IT teams should have a clearly defined set of goals. The most frequently cited goals and their rationales are below:

• Greening the Data Center – Consolidating multiple data centers can translate to a smaller overall carbon footprint, less energy consumed and less heat produced that requires air conditioning.
• Minimizing TCO – Bringing multiple data centers into one or a few locations enables IT teams to better manage server and storage costs; e.g., a smaller number of larger storage devices is less expensive than multiple smaller devices.
• Ensuring Up-to-Date Computing Platforms – IT teams are better able to manage migration from old to newer technologies in a consolidated environment.
• Enhancing Security – Reducing the number of datacenters cuts down on the number of entry points for malware. It also enables IT teams to more easily ensure all datacenters have the most robust security procedures.
• Improving Service to Employees – IT teams can better manage the user experience and respond more quickly to error messages and other issues in a consolidated environment.

Build a Methodology

To most effectively and efficiently complete a data center consolidation project, IT teams must work through an organized and well-conceived methodology. While every company has different needs, a general approach is outlined below.

In the Feasibility Study phase, IT teams learn short- and long-term goals of their organizations, including revenue and expense goals, product and/or service plans, markets to be penetrated, etc., and then the information needs that will help line managers achieve these goals. Especially valuable in this process can be a study of similar organizations that have undergone a datacenter consolidation process to review successes and failures as well as identify best practices that the IT team can apply to their organization’s consolidation project.

During Data Center Assessment, IT teams compare their organization’s goals to the current datacenter architecture. If a large number of employees are working remotely, for example, how are current distributed datacenters structured to handle remote access and security. The IT team should also study the current cost of managing the network and the return on investment it provides; e.g., can line managers rapidly access critical information from around the company to meet a customer need.

The Architecture Design phase consists of IT teams comparing the organization’s short- and long-term goals with the current data center and organizing a new, consolidated architecture that maintains or improves current network performance. IT teams should completely rethink every detail of the current network architecture and not fall into the trap of simply porting existing operating systems, applications, routers and other hardware/software into one large datacenter. In this phase, IT teams should also identify target costs of ownership and returns on investment. These should focus on not just electrical and cooling costs, but proposed improved efficiencies in how line managers can access and use critical information.

During Implementation, IT teams should select one area of the organization and turn up the new consolidated architecture to serve that group of employees, and closely monitor network performance, reliability, security, information access and other critical success factors. Only when they are satisfied with the network’s performance, should IT teams then move the rest of the organization to the new, consolidated infrastructure.   Providing adequate training and lead times during the transition to a consolidated datacenter is often critical, but also, unfortunately, often overlooked.

Finally, in the ongoing Management phase, IT teams must do much more than simply monitor network performance and execute upgrades periodically. They must continuously analyze and improve network functionality to optimize efficiency and cost effectiveness. The team should re-run cost of ownership and return on investment analyses periodically to quantify cost improvements. They should also regularly compare network performance against the success metrics identified at the beginning of the project.

8 Tips for Success

To help ensure the success of the project, below are a few of the tips IT teams should think about when planning a datacenter consolidation project:

1. Determine Required Resources – Outline the capacity needed to support the move, the time and skills required and inventory the current software and systems in place to determine which assets will and will not function correctly in a consolidated environment.
2. Create Specific Project Metrics – Map out goals of the project in terms of capabilities, time and resources required, and desired performance results.
3. Communicate with Other Disciplines Affected – IT teams should talk to facilities managers and others involved with a consolidation to understand any possible opportunities and constraints. For example, facilities teams are often responsible for power consumption, the IT team must be clear on power needs for a consolidated data enter.
4. Minimize Changes Once the Project Starts – Unless there are technical or other “deal breakers” do not make changes to the project plan once it is started. It’s too easy to miss the impact of changes on performance, security or another important metric.
5. Add Experience Where Needed – Ensure there are people on your consolidation team with previous data center consolidation experience.
6. Identify Best Practices from Similar Projects – Invest the time necessary to study datacenter consolidation projects at organizations in a similar situation to yours in terms of locations, network architecture, how teams work and the types and sizes of files shared.
7. Test and Test Again – As you complete elements of the consolidation, test and test again. To the degree possible, test elements of the network under heavy operating conditions and look for any failures in performance.
8. Use Data Center Consolidation as an Opportunity to “Clean House” – As IT teams plan and implement the consolidation project, there’s an opportunity to address other IT issues as well. Among these are activities such as removing legacy hardware from the network, either delete or move inactive data off of live applications, and determine what data must be stored on the network and what can be stored in the cloud.

As IT teams consider datacenter consolidation projects, it can often be valuable to turn to a third party for an outside assessment and recommendations. When reviewing these outside resources, IT teams should make certain they have datacenter consolidation experience in organizations such as theirs, as well as carefully check references.

Data center consolidations can provide many benefits, but IT leaders must be careful to define clear goals, continuously seek out and implement best practices and create a definitive, measureable timeline.