Reduce Infrastructure cost

with Microsoft System Center

About the AuthorsRajesh Choudhary is electronics engineer,

working as Infrastructure Support Professional. He has rich experience in AD, System Center Products. Rajesh has over 5

years of experience in different roles .Currently working with Global

Migration Support team with one of reputed client.

In these days of economic downturn, visibility into IT Operational costs has

become very important for Enterprises. This visibility is essential in order to

establish control over the increasing IT expenses. Enterprises have to

understand Application/Service Operating Cost that includes People Cost as

well as Technology Cost.

Organizations of all sizes can achieve significant costs savings by adopting

core infrastructure best practices for their Application/Service. Research

shows that the more best practices organizations adopt, the greater the cost

savings, thanks to more efficient Microsoft System Center technologies.

This whitepaper proposes a cost controlled approach, can be achieved by

System Center Configuration Manager and related technologies which can

integrate with and provide low cost and efficient Application/Service.

Inside the Issue: Abstract/Executive summary…..2 Introduction….2 what system center confirmation Manger does to save cost… Calculation of IT cost per Service/Application…. Plan Application Packaging & Delivery Methods…..Plan Configuration Manager Architecture….. Case Study…. In summary.. Reference…

Service catalog is emerging as a way to

manage and plan the IT portfolio

Abstract/Executive summary

In golden time, IT is asked to support growth and accelerate performance at all expenditures. The global recession has taught the IT world to mange existing resources efficiently and given time to think of “What you can control?” as it is true ‘You can’t control that you don’t know’. IT becomes an engine of cost saving and a focus of cost cutting now.

Cloud computing is good cost cutting / optimization solution, but IT has to wait for that. Service catalog is emerging as a way to manage and plan the IT portfolio. It is a unified and self-contained methodology to manage business-IT alignment. An approach to developing the effective catalog may vary depending on companies’ nature, customer requirements and existing assets. Effectively balancing these will help all the companies to start a new journey to a cost-effective service catalog solution model.

Introduction

A sensible solution is to adopt industrial best practices in a systematic way using Microsoft’s Core Infrastructure Optimization Model as a framework. This enables your organization to progress over time from a "basic" level of infrastructure optimization through "standard" and "rationalized" levels to a fully optimized and highly efficient "dynamic" level as best practices are adopted.

ConfigMgr has the largest installed base in the market, due mainly to Microsoft’s licensing strategy

IT Optimization Levels and Related CostsBasic Standardize

dRationalized

IT Cost (IT labor costs per PC per year, excluding software, hardware costs)

$1,320 $580 $230

Service Levels (number of service desk calls per PC per year)

8.4 8.5 7.7

Business agility (months to deploy new application) 5.4 5.2 4.3

N= 28 83 30

Notes:- • Lower values for IT labor costs result in cost savings for companies. IT labor costs are based on a fully burdened labor rate of $100,000 per year.• Service levels show the number of hours unavailable over the course of a year. Smaller numbers represent higher Service levels.• Business agility is represented as the time to deliver a new application in months and includes evaluation, application Development, procurement, testing, packaging, deployment, and troubleshooting. A smaller number represents a higher agility.Source: IDC, 2009

The Microsoft System Center family of management products can provide the key core infrastructure capabilities you need to implement these best practices and realize the cost savings. The Microsoft System Center family includes :-

Product Name

Product Description

System Center Configuration Manger

System Center Configuration Manager comprehensively assesses, deploys, and updates servers, client computers, and devices—across physical, virtual, distributed, and mobile environments. Optimized for Windows and extensible, it is the best choice for gaining enhanced insight into and control over IT systems.

System Center Operation Manager

System Center Operations Manager is the end-to-end service-management product that is the best choice for Windows because it works seamlessly with Microsoft software and applications, helping organizations increase efficiency while enabling greater control of the IT environment.

System Center Data Protection Manger

Delivering enterprise-class data protection and scalability, Data Protection Manager 2010 provides unified data protection for Windows servers such as SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Virtualization and file servers, in addition to Windows desktops and laptops.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 provides a management solution for today’s virtualized data center, affording centralized management of the IT infrastructure, increased server utilization capability, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization and physical platforms.

System Center Service Manger

A new Microsoft System Center product, System Center Service Manager is being designed to meet the needs of the modern IT help desk. By providing powerful new capabilities for incident, problem, asset, and change management, System Center Service Manager will support organizations as they seek to improve the service they provide to their users.

Microsoft Application Virtualization

Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (formerly Soft Grid Application Virtualization) allows the flexibility to control virtual application interaction. Administrators wanting to consolidate virtual environments and enable faster, easier administration can use the product’s Dynamic Suite Composition, which sequences and manages packages for middleware applications separately from the main application.

Speed application deployment to branch offices with ConfigMgr and Brach Caching

Figure shows optimize model where organizations have Service catalog and

use all system center technology.

Save $20K per Server per Year

How significant are the cost savings that Microsoft System Center can help

you realize? Research carried out by Gartner in 2009, found that

organizations running a collaboration workload using manual, "basic"

optimization level infrastructure incurred IT labor costs of $23,807 per

server per year. By contrast, organizations with a managed and

consolidated "rationalized" optimization level for their IT infrastructure, with

maximum automation, incurred costs of just $1,201 per server per year.

This story is repeated with many different workloads: companies with

"basic" optimization level infrastructures spent an annual average of

$15,045 on IT labor per server for their e-mail workloads, compared to just

$6,285 per server per year for those with a "rationalized" optimization level,

and $3,753 per server for connectivity workloads such as DNS and DHCP

compared to $301.

Save on Configuration Management

One important area where Microsoft System Center can help you cut costs is

configuration management. System Center Configuration Manager

automates some of the key tasks that need to be performed on physical and

virtual servers. Configuration management best practices include

automated virtualization, automated provisioning, and automated patching

and updating. In addition to System Center Configuration Manager, System

Center Virtual Machine Manager can also help with configuration

management. Together the two System Center products can enable:

rapid server provisioning and automatic deployment and updates

server virtualization and automate physical to virtual (P2V) server

conversions

Unified management of physical and virtual machines (including

those virtualized using VMware's ESX hypervisor) from a single

console.

Cost savings are achieved from:

more efficient use of IT staff, thanks to automation

reduced physical server purchasing requirements due to

virtualization

reduced energy cost

Cut End-to-End Monitoring Costs

Microsoft System Center can also help you cut costs by introducing

automation to monitor your systems more efficiently. Monitoring best

practices include automated feedback and reporting, automated trouble

handling, the threshold of monitored parameters, and integration with

predictive maintenance databases. The System Center modules that you

can use to implement these best practices are System Center Operations

Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, enabling you

to:

automate routine monitoring tasks

monitor applications and services proactively

carry out end-to-end system monitoring across different operating

systems, virtual environments, and physical servers

provide intelligent reporting

Cost savings come from:

more efficient use of IT staff thanks to automation and intelligent

reporting and monitoring

reduced maintenance costs

Reduce Data Protection, Recovery, and Restore Costs

Microsoft System Center can also enable you to reduce your data protection,

recovery, and restore costs dramatically in both virtualized and physical

environments. Best practices in this field involve automation of backup,

recovery, and restore operations themselves, as well as automated

archiving of content and hierarchical storage management. The key enabler

for implementing these best practices is System Center Data Protection

Manager, along with System Center Virtual Machine Manager to handle

virtualization. The combination of these two System Center modules enables

you to:

centralize backup and restore for physical and virtual machines

backup to disk for faster restore

reduce the cost impact of server failure by enabling high availability

and business continuity using a virtualized infrastructure and virtual

fall-back servers

Significant cost savings stem from:

Reduced need for IT staff to be involved in backup and restore

operations thanks to automation

self-service file recovery performed by end users

Reduced outage costs as virtual and physical workloads can be

restored automatically in minutes

Manage Security and Compliance More Efficiently

When it comes to security and compliance, core infrastructure best

practices involve automated system isolation and reconfiguration,

integration with intrusion detection systems, and the ability to

decommission without downtime. Used in tandem with Microsoft's Forefront

security suite, Microsoft System Center provides you with:

a console dashboard and reporting tools to help your data center

staff understand and control the state of you server configuration to

comply with regulatory requirements

automated reporting,

support for comprehensive security and identity access

management

layered server application security

the ability to manage servers automatically to meet compliance

standards

Costs reductions flow from:

Enterprise spends more on Application installation and management and other related costs. With Configuration Manager and MDOP technologies e.g.:-App-V enterprise can have mentioned Application Management Savings

IT Labor-50-98% User Support 75-100% Licensing 10-20% Indirect User Cost 20-

25%

Reduce application distribution times to remote branches by more than 95%

more productive IT staff thanks to automated detection,

decommissioning, and trouble handling

lower labor costs due to the automation of complex compliance

procedures

Long-Term Business Benefits

Reducing costs is always a sound business objective, and with IT infrastructure it can be especially important. That's because around 80 percent of a typical enterprise's IT budget is used on operations and maintenance, leaving just 20 percent to be used on new projects designed to further your business goals. By helping you cut day-to-day operation and maintenance costs, Microsoft System Center can leave your IT department with more money to invest in these value-adding projects. And since System Center has been designed to become a part of a long-term investment roadmap, that means that it can continue to help you realize significant IT cost savings and business benefits well in to the future as well.

What System Center Confirmation Manger does to save cost?

Let’s start with an overview of SMS Features that can help in controlling IT cost. There are 6 Primary Features, those being:

Inventory management: Ability to collect and manage Software and Hardware Inventory of client computers.

Software Distribution: Ability to deploy Service Packs, Patches , Apps, upgrades from a central location to Clients .

Software Metering: Ability to monitor the usage of Applications by users in your network.

Remote control management: Which is the ability to control your clients remotely in a help desk scenario without leaving your office?

Software Update Management: The process of keeping computers and servers that are running windows OS updated with security patches. This includes:• Performing an inventory of installable and applicable updates on

managed computers and pulling updates from windows update.• Evaluating and testing available updates• Authorizing and distributing the updates.• Tracking software update compliance• Updates for OS, Office, IIS, Exchange and SQL

Power Consumption Management:

Which is the ability to control power consumption settings of Servers/Desktops in enterprise. Helps in Green IT.

There are lot many other advantages by implementing Configuration Manager with combination of SCOM, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, System Center Service Manger that reflects with overall IT Service cost.

Securely distribute application and security updates in less time and with success rate of 95-99%

Calculation of IT cost per Service/Application:

The following diagram shows how the costs under Cost Heads can be apportioned to Cost Objects, using certain logical allocation criteria based on the Cost Drivers. It finally links the category wise costs to application’s usage of Cost Units, summing up to the Application’s Cost.

Enterprise spends more on Application installation and management and other related costs. With Configuration Manager and MDOP technologies e.g.:-App-V enterprise can have mentioned Application Management Savings

IT Labor-50-98% User Billing Cost 75-100% Licensing 10-20% Indirect User Cost 20-25%

Reduce the cost and complexity of managing multiple branch deployments

Below mentioned scenarios gives basic understanding of Cost Units to applications.

Scenario Cost technique ExampleA One Cost object used exclusively by Application

Application carries the full cost of the cost object

Application installed in 4 CPU Server. Considering only H/W Maintenance Cost, the Application Cost=4x Cost per CPU

B One cost object is shared by many Applications

Cost Units are divided among the applications-

By exact usage of an application- eg No. of CPUs allocated.

Equally Using Application

parameters- eg, Database Volumes, Business Criticality, No. of Maintenance tickets etc. as appropriate to context

Application on A & B share the 4 CPU Server. A&B are allotted 3&1 CPUs respectively. Their H/W Maintenance Costs are-A=3xCost per CPU;B=1xCost per CPU;Application A&B share an Sql instance-, their DB volumes are 400GB&150 GB respectively. Implies A uses 400/(400+150)=0.73 and B uses 150/(400+150)=0.27 of Sql instance.Their S/W Maintenance costs are- A=0.73x Cost Sql Instance;B=0.27x Cost Sql Instance;

Also, it may be mentioned that their storage Maintenance costs would be-A=400xCost per GB;B=150xCost per GB;

C. Many cost objects are exclusively used by an Application

Application carries the sum of the Cost Units

Application installed in 4 CPU Server, uses an Sql instance in the same server and uses 500 GB of Storage. Then Application Cost=H/W maint. Cost+Storage Maint. Cost+ S/W Maint. Cost = 4x Cost per CPU+500xCost per GB+1x Cost Per Sql Instance

D. Many to many relationship between cost objects and Applications

Can be broken down into a combination of B&C. Each Application carries the sum of B&C. Each Application carries the sum of Cost units used by it exclusively and the apportioned share of cost units shared with other Applications.

Extending the example of Applications A&B above, assuming A also uses an Oracle instance of 200 GB size in a 2 CPU Server. Thus, their Cost are-A=(3+2)x Cost per CPU+ (400+200)x Cost per GB+0.73x Cost per Sql Instance+1x Cost per Oracle instanceB=1xCost per CPU+150xCost per GB+0.27x Cost per Sql Instance

Plan Application Packaging & Delivery Methods

No two organizations are the same. So Lot more comes before going for Application remediation solution. Enterprise should have inventory of applications used in their infrastructure. Application Type, license information, Application Categorization (Layer 0, Layer 1, and Layer 2 etc) should be taken care before starting further for remediation and packaging. Last but not least application delivery method should be planned before going further.

Recommended Application Delivery Methods:-1. Target based on User2. Target Based on Machine3. Target Based on Application Delivery OU4. Target Based on Custom queries

Plan Configuration Manager Architecture

Successfully implementing Configuration Manager 2007 requires detailed planning. It is important that you understand the planning process. While designing solution one should complete planning process like:-

Identified which Configuration Manager Features will be needed. Design components, layout, security and connectivity of Configuration Manager Infrastructure.

Configuration Manager Feature

Business Goal Feature Description

Automate software installation

Operating System Distribution

Installs a configured operating system, even on systems that have no operating systems (bare metal).

Software Distribution Installs and configures software programs.

Application Virtualization Streams applications that have been sequenced by Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V).

Software Updates Scans servers and workstations for software updates and deploys those updates.

Asset inventory Hardware Inventory Collects hardware information from business servers and client systems, such as available disk space, processor type, and operating system.

Software Inventory Collects software information, such as versions.

Asset Intelligence Recognizes Microsoft and third-party software “signatures” by checking and verifying information in a database—for example, checking executable filenames.

Standardize configurations and compliance

Network Access Protection

Provides enforcement of software updates on clients before they can access network resources.

Desired Configuration Management

Defines configuration standards and policies, and audits standards compliance throughout the enterprise against those defined configurations.

Software Metering Collects and reports on software that is in use so that this can be compared against licenses to ensure software license compliance.

Manage outside the enterprise

Internet-Based Client Management

Enables management of clients that are beyond the organization’s firewall boundary—for example, on the Internet.

Mobile Device Management

Mobile devices, such as smart phones and Pocket PCs, can run a capabilities subset, such as inventory and software distribution (cannot be managed by remote control or receive operating system deployments like desktop clients).

Manage machines off hours

Wake on LAN Can power on a system, even when it’s switched off, which is useful for performing software distribution or software updates during off hours.

Out of Band Management

Can manage systems when they are turned off, in sleep mode, in hibernation mode, or otherwise unresponsive. The managed computer must have the Intel V-Pro chip installed.

Take the Help Desk to the user

Remote Control Remotely administer client workstations. Useful for Help Desk personnel needing to troubleshoot individual user issues.

Case Study

Company A Company B

Company Model

Company A is working with user base 22,000 and operating from three regions EMEA, APAC, and AMERS(150 offices around world). Company A does not have any Software Distribution Process. They still work with traditional methods of software installation and have own customized IT service desk.

Company B is working with user base 22,000 and operating from three regions EMEA, APAC, AMERS. Company B used System Center products to enhance their IT Service. They have Service Catalog and Configuration Manager Setup in place. Company B has approx 150 office across word and there are 50 small offices with user base 30 each location.

Staff Model

IT professional:- 450Each Office has IT staff. Staff is deputed to remote location where user base is 100 or less.

Each Office has file server and software’s dump is available.

For OS Deployment they use WDS with several images as per hardware.

No Software dumps@ any location.

Remote offices where user base is less than 300 no IT staff is deployed except one IT Admin per location that too for small locations where user base is less than 100 IT Admin is not available.

Company pays to Service Providers per call/Hours for such remote locations and service provider ensure engineer availability as and when required. Maximum activities taken care centrally from Data Center Locations.

Location

Company A planned similar standard infrastructure setup @ all regions/locations.

Sites differentiated but they are not able to execute because Regional teams works independently though they have central team in place and few services too.

Company B has similar standard infrastructure setup @ all regions/locations.

Sites differentiated as Gold, Silver, Bronze as per infra setup and user’s strengths.

App Cost

Saving

For 20 applications total cost per user=725.83311+Application Cost

This cost does not include software inventory and license inventory part

Cost Calculated if BU-User charge 50$/hour and IT staff charge 30$/hour

For 20 applications total cost per user=297.916575+ Application Cost

This cost include software inventory and license inventory part too.

Cost Calculated if BU-User charge 50$/hour and IT staff charge 30$/hour

Net Cost Saving=427.916535 per User

App Cost

Saving - Statistic

s (Sample data for 20 apps/

per installation/per user)

Office

Citrix

Client

VPN CLIENT

Adobe Writ

er

BS Apps 0

8

BS Apps 1

0

BS Apps 1

2

BS Apps 1

4

BS Apps 1

6

BS Apps 1

80

102030405060708090

BU Cost ( 1 Hour = 50$)

IT Staff Cost ( 1 Hour = 30$)

Total Cost/ Per App

Office

SAP GUI

Citrix

Client

IE8

VPN CLIENT

Communicator

Adobe Writ

er

BS Apps 0

7

BS Apps 0

8

BS Apps 0

9

BS Apps 1

0

BS Apps 1

1

BS Apps 1

2

BS Apps 1

3

BS Apps 1

4

BS Apps 1

5

BS Apps 1

6

BS Apps 1

7

BS Apps 1

8

BS Apps 1

90

102030405060708090

BU Cost ( 1 Hour = 50$)

IT Staff Cost ( 1 Hour = 30$)

Total Cost/ Per App

App Cost

Saving - Statistic

s (Sample data for 20 apps/

per installation/per user) Office

Citrix

Client

VPN CLIENT

Adobe Writ

er

BS Apps 0

8

BS Apps 1

0

BS Apps 1

2

BS Apps 1

4

BS Apps 1

6

BS Apps 1

80

20

40

60

80

100

120

BU Hour Loss

IF Staff Hour Loss

Total Hour Loss

Office

Citrix

Client

VPN CLIENT

Adobe Writ

er

BS Apps 0

8

BS Apps 1

0

BS Apps 1

2

BS Apps 1

4

BS Apps 1

6

BS Apps 1

80

20

40

60

80

100

120

BU Hour LossIF Staff Hour LossTotal Hour Loss

OS Deployment

Methodology

For OS deployment Company A use WDS

Company has different images as per hardware and project requirements

For Old machine data backup, Domain Joining and profile configuration for new OS and other related stuff Engineer’s presence is must.

For OS Deployment Company B use SCCM+MDT

Company B has Global Image for different OS that fulfill all hardware requirements and by Task Sequences it has fulfilled Specific Project Requirements

Old machines data automatically backed up on State Migration Points by SCCM. OS Deployment task sequence takes care of hardware drivers, Domain Joining, OS Language Packs, and Standard Software Distribution. Once OS migrated/reinstalled in last stage of this process backed up data automatically restored to locations from where it was captured.

OS Deployment Cost

Saving

On an average one engineer require 150 min for OS reinstallation, application restoration and other stuff so User can be productive. That too require follow-up with different teams if few project critical software needed.

IT Staff Hour Loss=150BU User Hour Loss=180BU Cost=150 $ (1hour=50$)IT Cost=75 $Total Cost=225$

ConfigMgr OSD requires 60 min for complete OS distribution process and engineer’s intervention is very less.

BU User Hours Loss=80 minBU Cost=66.66Total Cost=66.66

Inventor Hardware & Software Inventory Additional cost and man hours required

Hardware & Software Inventory is free of cost included in Software & OS installation Cost

y cost Software license and application license tracking require additional cost

Software Metering included Software deployment cost

Cost Calculat

ion Sheet

In summary: - Why Microsoft ConfigMgr

There are many market leaders in PCCLM market eg:-Landesk, Altris, BMC Software, CA ITM etc. Yet why ConfigMgr. Answer is simple. ConfigMgr has the largest installed base in the market, due mainly to Microsoft’s licensing strategy of including it in the core and enterprise client access license bundles, Microsoft’s strengths in PCCLM market lie in its ability to offer a single-vendor approach to the client platform and its management.

Reference

1. IDC sms whitepaper2. Microsoft TechNet 3. Consulting White Paper Measuring Cost of IT Service at point of delivery TCS4. Gartner Reports on PCLCM