April 14, 2009

Consolidating & Virtualizing | A Green IT Strategy that Pays Big

Slashing the IT Costs & Reducing Environmental Impact

Many managers associate Green IT initiatives with solutions that will carry a higher cost than traditional solutions. This couldn't be further from the truth. In this post I'll discuss a strategy that will save money in the short term, the long term, and will have a significantly lower environmental impact.

Before we dive into the solution let's being by understanding the scenario. Most businesses run a variety of applications. These can include e-mail, file servers, print servers, CRM applications, web servers, SharePoint, accounting systems, etc, etc. As a common practice, IT managers generally like to keep most applications on dedicated hardware. CRM runs in one server, accounting runs on another, each application has it's own server. The reason for this is simple, when multiple applications are loaded in one machine the likelyhood of issues increases exponentially. So, the admin(being of sound judgment) builds the most stable IT environment they can by keeping everything seperate. As a result, even a small company may have as many as dozens of servers running different applications, and many servers being under utilized.

The result is lots of power consumption, lots of APC battery backups, lots of cooling, lots of recurring hardware replacements year over year, and a great deal of wasted processing capability.

The scenario I described above is the exact scenario I encountered recently. One particular customer was looking at several new servers to handle some new applications and several additional servers to replace existing hardware.

After analyzing the required processor and memory for each of the 7 proposed replacements it became clear each and every server would be under utilized even if we bought the smallest box on the market. Rather than installing three more small servers and replacing 4 others, we installed a single server with much more memory and processing capability.

The solution was a single server with a price tag of $8000 opposed to 7 servers with a price of $2000 each. Using VMware ESXi (a free version) for the host operating system we proceeded with building and migrating the seven virtual servers.

If the lower cost of replacing seven servers with a single unit wasn't enough, consider the downstream ramifications. The result is 6 less APC battery backups needed, 6 less APC battery backups that need battery replacements every 2 years, roughly 6000 Watts of power reduction, and 6 less computers to replace on a recurring basis, 6 less computers to dispose of going forward, and less cooling required.

Additionally, these 7 new virtual servers are easier to manage, and the new server has room to accomodate another 3-4 virtual servers. Ultimately, this particular customer will see their server inventory shrink from 33 servers to probably 2 dedicated servers and 31 virtual servers running on 4 boxes - a total of 6 physical boxes versus 33.

A couple things to be careful when implementing virtual servers:

Look for the "corner condition" when analyzing the demands of an application in terms of memory and processor utilization. You want to understand what the application or server requires when it is loaded with maximum users and high rate transactions. As an example, for a retailer this would be the load encountered the day after Thanksgiving. Use this condition and add room for growth.
Carefully consider the disaster recovery and business continuity requirements associated with servers you transition to a virtual environment. Consider how applications are distributed among servers. Spread mission critical applications across as many different physical servers as possible.
Invest in superior hardware to run your virtual environment. Once you have 12 servers running in one box you'll be glad you have hot pluggable fans, power supplies, and disks.

iTechnology Design offers Green IT consulting services throughout the country. We can assist you in developing a comprehensive long term IT plan that will save money, and reduce the environmental impact of your information technology systems.