When tasked with the seemingly vague directive to "consolidate storage," technology managers have often thrown money at the problem. Bigger servers. Upgraded networks. But these are just the building blocks of a working solution.
Ian Selway, a Worldwide Solutions Marketing Manager for HP, describes the need to plan for any consolidation exercise. “The starting point should not be the technology,” he says. "The first place to start is to understand the business. Once you understand the business drivers, you can comprehend how they translate into requirements for the IT organization."
Planning for successful storage consolidation
According to Ewald Comhaire, Global Practice Principal for Infrastructure Services with HP Consulting and Integration, "We’ve evolved from looking at consolidation from a technological viewpoint, with the goal of reducing cost. Now we ask, 'how is storage delivered as a service by the IT organization?'"
Organizations usually consider storage consolidation when:
- There is a spike in storage costs
- They discover bottlenecks in getting information from different sources
- Integrating new systems from a merger
"Look at the quality of service being offered," advises Comhaire. "This is the chance to look at the issues of business continuity and risk overall, and the flexibility of your services." While cost reduction is often a key target of storage consolidation, smart companies use the exercise to make the whole system more efficient: delivering solutions faster, increasing the utilization of systems, and ultimately, ramping up the efficiency of staff.
Take, for example, the consolidation of Microsoft® Exchange servers. "Typically sales organizations gather inventory information, load the information at the end of the day, and send it off to the company," says Selway. "With Exchange 2007, you can equip the sales force with converged devices, so when they’re out with the customer, they can gather and send the information in real time." This kind of capability is pure icing on the cake of saved storage costs.
Virtualization for effective consolidation
When companies run their applications on virtual machines, they increase the utilization ratio of their hardware. "When a business has 50 servers, we go in and undertake an analysis of their server environment," says Selway. “We can consolidate these systems down into a set of servers at much higher utilization," he says. "A side benefit is savings on licensing fees for servers and applications, reduced maintenance fees, and less complexity." CitiStreet, one of the largest global benefits delivery firms in the United States, projects it will save $275,000 over five years on IT productivity gains alone by deploying virtual storage solutions from HP.
But before you become too tempted to sock your cost savings back to the bottom line, consider the possibility for transforming your business. You can move people from supportive, reactive positions into those that enhance your organization’s competitive advantage. Philips Lighting Electronics North America, for example, used the savings from a recent IT optimization project to drive a wide-ranging storage consolidation.
Mitigating Risk
There’s always risk when undertaking a project as extensive as storage consolidation. When merging many resources, comparative investments need to be made in network capacity and mission-critical support. After all, the net result is that more people will be depending on fewer systems. Generally, the extra investments are offset by the savings.
A complete assessment by HP can help you determine the path that will net you the most benefit: whether it’s merging 50 systems into fewer machines, enhancing your network with added critical support, or navigating the political landscape inherent in these projects.