March 2010

Data Center Consolidation

© Copyright 2010 T3 Dynamics LLC, All Rights Reserved

What is IT Doing?

Improving security

What is the key IT driver today?

Cost Cutting ……above all things

Consolidating Infrastructure is Key

• Gartner reports that 69% of IT

cost is from operations and

maintenance of existing systems

• 29% of IT budget is staff costs

alone

• More data centers means

• 50% of data center costs is

derived from software,

networking, server and

storage costs

• 20% of budget is telecom

and network services;

Network HW is 23% of

capital budget

• Power is up to 33% of the

cost of the DC space

How?

Reduce the cost of the data center• Reduce the size and number of data centers and

servers • Migrate to new virtualized HW (possibly including

private and public clouds) during the consolidation• Implement strategic DR functionality as a bi-

product of the move

DC Consolidation activities

What else can be done?

Reduce cost of people• Implement more efficient IT Service Management

processes• Outsource commodity activities

Sweating the details

• Avoid mistakes that will extend the project time and effort –

sweat the details in application migration planning

• Identify contract date obligations

• Define critical cutover dates by application – change

management

• Manage lead times for hardware, space, network changes

• Develop detailed release plans by application

• Complete configuration management of applications and

documentation

• Perform functional regression testing and performance testing

• Deliver changes to service desk documentation and training

• Execute communication plan

Strategy and Resource Conclusions

Much of the IT cost reduction goals will come from infrastructure consolidation

– How do you make this project efficient and effective?

• Ensure completeness – starts with an accurate inventory

• Hardware – physical and virtualized

• Software – completeness and opportunities for consolidation

• Application/infrastructure interdependencies

For More Information

Barry Weber

• Phone: +1 818 584 6565

• Email: bweber@T3Dynamics.com

Thank You