Today, the primary drivers of data center consolidation are space, power and cooling constraints.  New computing paradigms such as smarter energy management hardware and software technologies, virtualization and compute and storage clouds provide solutions to these challenges and enable the opportunity for rapid data center consolidation.  Data center consolidation has significant implications for system integrators and data center service providers. They should anticipate substantial new business if they adopt new design paradigms and offer improved operations coupled with energy reduction.  Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra signaled this when he stated that reducing energy costs will be the driving force in the Federal Government’s data center consolidation efforts. He noted that that the number of government data centers soared from 432 in 1,999 to the current 1,100 plus. The situation became even more urgent when it was discovered that there were actually 2,094 Federal data centers!

At the same time, relevant new technologies continue to emerge in server architecture (e.g. embedded energy management), storage capabilities (e.g. location transparency and seamless access), application design (e.g. Web 2.0) and service management (e.g. Cloud computing). According to Gartner (March 2010), “server and storage virtualization, multi-core processors, new fabrics and improved server management tools will evolve rapidly through 2017.” Legacy applications must be integrated with “new application design relating to the Web and Cloud-Services.” To no one’s surprise, the operation of large scale data centers will continue to be costly with challenges in labor costs and energy expenses.

As I indicated in a previous post, unless agencies undertake a strategic approach and align the agency’s strategy with IT initiatives, they will be worse-off post-consolidation vs. pre-consolidation. Specifically for data center consolidation, the plan should accommodate growth for at least three to five quarters after completion by including planned deployments and technology advances. It creates an awkward situation when CIOs create support for a consolidation project and then go back in a few months later to request budget for more data center space.

Some important considerations while consolidating data centers include:

• Maintain or improve business continuity posture

• Maintain or improve security posture

• Optimize services across applications/databases

• While “backward consolidation,” an attempt to undo the IT sprawl generated over the years may be a tempting, move “forward consolidation.” By planning for the long-term, organizations will prevent future sprawl and continue to realize consistently high ROI.

• Use standardized and standards-based operational processes for efficiency and effectiveness

• Incorporate concepts and techniques of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as best business practice for managing information technology infrastructure

• Adopt the Leaderships in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as the green building ratings system.  Building green is today’s imperative for data center cost containment, since power is the single most important cost driver in modern large data centers. It is not just power consumption, but power reliability and availability that impact cost. Green technologies reduce power waste and fixed loss factors in data centers, and provide greater agility through smarter capacity management, power distribution, cooling approaches, and agile provisioning of mission applications.

• Optimize IT through server, storage, and software virtualization and consolidation

• Tap into the expertise and insights of a major system integrator with deep expertise and proven consolidation results. A Gartner study indicated that “15% of the organizations that did not use outside help wished that they had after it was over.”

Organizations such as eHealth Ontario (Canada), Philadelphia Housing Authority, Vodafone Turkey, and Cajasol Bank (Spain) have utilized industry-leading tools/methodologies to assist in their data center consolidation efforts. For example, since Cajasol Bank consolidated its IT platform, it allowed Cajasol to expand its business in Andalusia, Madrid and the Spanish Mediterranean Coast and enable the company to offer higher quality and real-time services to a growing number of customers with greater flexibility and at a lower cost.

How can you organization benefit from data center consolidation? Please share your comments. 

Ravi Bansal is a project executive and a strategist at IBM Global Business Services. He is a proven business leader with experience proposing, leading and delivering multimillion-dollar business solutions. In addition, Mr. Bansal is a strategist for IBM federal’s cloud computing and smarter government initiatives. He authored 5E framework for targeted IT consolidation and the strategic framework for cloud alliances. He is passionate about cloud computing, cleantech, next generation business strategies and most importantly, helping clients articulate vision for their business.

Mr. Bansal is one of IBM Americas’ top consultants and has also been inducted in IBM’s delivery excellence circle. Over years he has been honored with numerous awards for outstanding business performance and exceptional client service. Outside of direct work responsibilities, he is involved in an eclectic collection of giveback activities. Among other things, he was an officer of the Executive Committee of Metropolitan Washington Mensa, canvasser for IBM employee charitable contributions campaign and a guest speaker at business schools. Mr. Bansal is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with majors in Finance and Strategy.

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