Extreme server makeovers

Server consolidation has become one of those inescapable trends in the computer industry - everyone, it seems, is either doing it, planning to do it or thinking they should be doing it.

In fact, 75% of large companies are expected to consolidate servers or storage this year, according to IDC.

"The goal of consolidation is to cut operations costs," says Gordon Haff, a senior analyst at Illuminata. "But there are a number of different ways to do that, depending on your business goals, your applications, your existing skill sets and your environment. There is no 'right way' to consolidate."

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Server consolidation has become one of those inescapable trends in the computer industry - everyone, it seems, is either doing it, planning to do it or thinking they should be doing it.

In fact, 75% of large companies are expected to consolidate servers or storage this year, according to IDC.

"The goal of consolidation is to cut operations costs," says Gordon Haff, a senior analyst at Illuminata. "But there are a number of different ways to do that, depending on your business goals, your applications, your existing skill sets and your environment. There is no 'right way' to consolidate."

If you're starting with many small-scale Windows servers, you could centralize onto fewer servers, using VMWare's VMWare to more flexibly provision the hardware resources. Or you can use blade servers for physical consolidation on one rack with a unified management across the blades.

In the Unix world, HP, IBM and Sun offer large servers that can be partitioned. Or you can go with a few clustered machines.

The goal is not simply reducing the number of servers; it's making your data center easier to manage. With that in mind, Meta Group suggests a phased approach. Step one is to collocate your servers. Second is to consolidate your storage onto storage-area networks (SAN).

At that point you need to reduce the variety of applications and servers and decide what to keep, what to get rid of and what to replace, says Gartner analyst Philip Dawson. Equally important is investing in management tools to improve technician-to-server ratios, Dawson says.

All of these points are illustrated in the following case studies:

•  Beyond the Superdome
•  Escape from D.C.
•  PeopleSoft upgrade drives consolidation
•  The big box theory

Read more about data center in Network World's Data Center section.