Why a Server Infrastructure Refresh Now and Why Dell? · Windows Server 2012 R2, will enable your...

Why a Server Infrastructure Refresh Now and Why Dell?

a QuinStreet Executive Brief. © 2015

In This Paper• Outdated server infrastructure contributes

to operating inefficiencies, lost productivity, and vulnerabilities

• Worse, existing infrastructure often cannot satisfy current and near-future IT service demands

• An infrastructure update will help meet today’s and new business needs and opportunities Executive Brief

© 2015, QuinStreet, Inc.


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Introduction

In the last few years there have

been radical changes in the

ways organizations operate and

people work. Explosion of data,

increased mobile demands, and the

globalization of business in general

are making 24/7 access to people and

information the norm. Sophisticated

cyber attacks are requiring robust

systems security designed to counter

new threats. And velocity is now

essential when delivering new IT

services.

All of these factors are driving changes

in the data center. Unfortunately, if

your organization is like most, you

will likely find that your existing

infrastructure cannot meet today’s

and near-future service demands.

Many organizations have delayed

infrastructure refreshes for a variety of

reasons. Some have simply not had

the budget or IT staff resources to do

anything but keep the data center

operating at status quo. Others have

not seen the need to update systems

that have performed well and do the

job. As a result, many organizations

are relying on server infrastructure

technologies that are a decade old.

Outdated server infrastructure can

result in operating inefficiencies, the

loss of productivity, and vulnerabilities

for organizations including:

• Higher hardware management and

maintenance costs

• Higher power and cooling costs

• Higher cost of replacement parts

• Lagging performance compared to

current server capabilities

• Lower storage capacities compared

to current server capabilities

• Lagging applications software and

systems software

• Increased security risks and

vulnerabilities.

If these are not reason enough to

consider a server infrastructure

refresh, mainstream and extended

support for versions of Microsoft®

Windows Server® are coming to an

end. On January 13, 2015, Microsoft

will remove mainstream support

for Windows Server 2008 and

Windows Server 2008 R2, ending

active development for the product,

warranty claims and no-charge non-

security hotfixes. Extended support for

Windows Server 2003 and Windows

Server 2003 R2 will be removed on

July 14, 2015 and this will mean:

• No security updates, fixes, or online

support

• No safe haven for physical and

virtualized instances of Windows

Server 2003

• No support for many applications

(including those from Microsoft)

• No compliance with various

regulations and industry standards

(including Payment Card Industry

Data Security Standard – PCI DSS)

• No ability to leverage modern cloud

options from Microsoft and other

vendors

• Added costs for Customer

Support Agreement and the need

for intrusion detection systems,

more advanced firewalls, network

segmentation, and other security

measures simply to isolate Windows

Server 2003 servers.



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If your organization does not already

have a Windows Server migration

plan, or is not well into a migration,

time is critical. Microsoft estimates

that a server migration will take at

least 200 days to perform and 100-plus

additional days if there are associated

application migrations.

What’s needed and why?

An infrastructure review and update

is key to ensuring your organization

is aligned to meet both today’s

business needs and future changes or

opportunities. This involves potential

upgrade to server hardware with the

latest processors and technologies;

transition to modern enterprise

operating systems with new features

and enhancements in virtualization,

management, and protection; the

modernization of legacy applications;

and other potential complementary

actions (like flattening the network or

evaluating new storage options).

This will allow you to become more

responsive to the needs of your

organization, ensure security and

compliance. Additionally, it will add

value and provide agility that supports

new ways to deliver IT services.

Furthermore, your organization will

benefit from new opportunities, and

improve IT operations and stability.

This will all happen while cutting

costs and offering operational

improvements via automation,

virtualization, improved resource

utilization, and a reduced footprint.

Besides the modernization benefits,

a server refresh and OS migration will

obviously help avoid the problems

that will manifest once Windows

Server 2003/R2 reaches end of

extended service this year.

There has never been a better time

to conduct such a modernization.

It will allow your IT department to

transform the business. The reason:

the latest Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

offer more performance, lower

energy consumption, faster memory,

and support for higher throughput

and I/O storage. Dell servers

include some of the highest density

systems on the market and come in

innovative rack, tower, and shared

converged infrastructure platforms.

Dell server solutions for unified

communications and collaboration,

database and transaction processing,

high performance computing, and

virtualization and cloud are optimized

to support more users, deliver higher

and more predictable performance,

and accommodate more flexibility

and scalability than was possible

with previous generation systems.

Complementing the servers, Dell

offers a wide range of top performing

storage and networking solutions

“ The end of extended support for Windows

Server 2003 is July 14, 2015.”

designed for today’s data volumes and

data center server-to-server traffic.

Adding the latest software, Microsoft

Windows Server 2012 R2, will enable

your organization to use the new

hardware to its full capacity and further

reduce server footprint and simplify

management. Many of the features

that are standard in today’s Windows

Server 2012 R2 were not available

in Windows Server 2003/Windows

Server 2003 R2 or Windows Server

2008/Windows Server 2008 R2. These

features include scalable, feature-

rich virtualization via Hyper-V®, the

addition of network virtualization to

isolate network traffic from different

business units or customers on

a shared infrastructure; low-cost,

high-availability storage; improved

management; dynamic access control;

and support for hybrid applications

protecting existing investments in on-

premises applications.

When you refresh with Dell servers

running Windows Server 2012 R2

you deliver the value of a modern

infrastructure. More powerful hardware

and software means:

• Increased performance with

improved processing and

throughput

• Reduced operational expense

by virtue of using more energy-



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efficiency systems and employing

increased consolidation

• Streamlined management with

standards-based compute, storage,

and networking management

• Cost-effective support for storage,

disaster recovery, and remote access

• Full support with warranties for parts

and services

• Innovative service delivery that

supports a choice of private, public,

hybrid cloud, and IT as a service

options

• Ability to enable new business and

ways to work by supporting big

data, BYOD (bring-your-own-device),

collaborative, and social computing.

Where do you begin?

Once you decide to refresh your server

infrastructure and migrate to a newer

version of Windows Server, there is a

general four-step process: discovery,

assessment, target, and migrate.

First up is a discovery or inventory

stage, which is used to get a better

understanding of the existing server

environment and specifically to

identify and catalog all the software

and workloads that are running

on earlier versions of Windows

Server. Dell offers a series of tools

to help with this process and the

others that follow. Dell Enterprise

Reporter provides a comprehensive

pre-migration assessment of your

current infrastructure, including

Active Directory®, Windows Server,

and Microsoft SQL Server® database.

Dell Asset Manager enables you to

discover what server applications you

have installed on your environment

and provides a full inventory list at the

start of your migration.

With a detailed inventory in hand, the

next step is to assess the applications

running in the earlier Windows Server

environments in several ways – by

type, by criticality, by complexity and

by risk. For many organizations, the

assessment presents an opportunity

to retire under-utilized or redundant

applications, consolidate licenses

across the organization, and update

older applications to reap the benefits

and new features in more current

versions of the applications.

After the assessment you can prioritize

the applications and workloads for

migration to help determine the

sequence of updates that need

to be performed. For example, an

organization might need to perform

a Windows Server 2012 R2 upgrade

before it updates its Exchange Server

or other applications. To determine

“ Many organizations have delayed

infrastructure refreshes.”



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compatibility, Dell ChangeBASE

performs testing and reports on which

applications will work with newer

versions of Windows Server.

Next, you must consider your

deployment/disposition options for

each workload. For example, some

applications might be moved to new

hardware running Windows Server

2012 R2. Other workloads might be

virtualized and their virtual machines

run on Windows Server 2012 R2

Hyper-V servers in the data center,

or you may deploy and manage your

applications within a hybrid cloud

environment. This is an optimum

time to evaluate if some applications

might be moved to a public cloud

infrastructure or platform service such

as Windows Azure™. The choice will

be driven by factors such as security,

cost, duration or lifecycle, and desired

functionality.

The final stage is to conduct the

actual migration. Part of this process

includes migrating foundation services

such as Active Directory, DNS, File/

print, and DHCP associated with an

OS upgrade to Windows Server 2012

R2. Dell Migration Manager for Active

Directory facilitates the move from

Windows Server 2003/Windows Server

2003 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2 by

restructuring Active Directory, ensuring

that users have the same access to

resources after the migration and

promoting security and compliance in

the new Windows Server environment.

To quickly migrate Windows Sever

data, there is Dell Secure Copy, an

automated tool that facilitates the

movement of data from Windows

Server 2003/Windows Server 2003

R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2 file

servers. Dell NDS Migrator can help

you transition from Novell® Directory

Services to Windows Server 2012 R2

and Active Directory. In addition to the

directory, the tool also migrates data

that resides within Novell Directory

Services, allowing you to finally sunset

legacy Novell systems.

Dell as your technology partner

Carrying out a migration is a critical

and potentially complicated and

time consuming undertaking. Every

environment is unique; no single plan

will suit everyone’s requirements.

Whether you are a do-it-yourself

organization, need help jump starting

a new migration, or fast forwarding

one already in progress, Dell provides

assets, tools, software, and support –

as much or as little as you require .

A Dell Windows Server 2003 Migration

Consultative Workshop can help

accelerate your planning in one-half

day. At the end of this interactive and

customized process, you will have

a blueprint for the migration plan,

techniques, and budget requirements.

Dell Services aims to provide

customers with the most

comprehensive Windows Server

migration services portfolio, including:

• Dell Windows Server OS

Modernization Services provide

a guide to flexible IT approaches

that map out multiple technology

options and deliver innovative

technology integration, while

increasing automation and reducing

manual effort

• Dell Datacenter Transformation

Methodology which helps

accelerate server migration while

simultaneously mitigating risk with a

step-by-step migration plan unique

to each application and workload

specification

• Dell Application Management

Consulting and Global Application

Packaging Factory which conducts

a full application inventory during

the migration process to examine

the compatibility of each legacy

application and identify the needed

remediation for each.

Additionally, Dell Education

Services offers Microsoft training

for IT professionals to support your

move to new Dell and Microsoft

solutions. Dell Financial Services has

“ Outdated server infrastructure can result

in operating inefficiencies.”



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a wealth of leasing and financing

solutions designed to help make

refreshes affordable and help you

find opportunities in your IT capital

expenditure, operating expenditures

and cash flow decisions.

Summary

Aging server infrastructure can no

longer meet the demands of today’s

modern data center. Explosive

data growth, increased mobility,

globalization, virtualization and

regulatory demands cannot be met

with decade old infrastructure. And

with the end of extended support

for Microsoft Windows Server 2003/

Windows Server 2003 R2 on the

horizon, there is no better time

than now to refresh your server

infrastructure.

The technology available in modern

infrastructure will increase your ability

to deliver more flexible and efficient

data centers, enable the move to

virtualization and cloud solutions,

helping your organization meet

current and future IT requirements..

The latest generation hardware, such

as the Dell PowerEdge server, offers

increased performance and scalability,

cost savings, improved productivity

and reliability. A modern operating

system, like Microsoft Windows

Server 2012 R2, with advancements in

virtualization, storage, networking and

automation, will let your organization

use this new hardware to its full

capacity.

A server infrastructure refresh is

something your organization should

carefully plan and execute to help

reduce the risk of error and minimize

operational downtime. Organizations

need to consider hardware and

software licensing costs, hardware and

application compatibility, deployment

options, and scheduling to maintain

high productivity.

With Dell as your technology

partner, your organization can

make a smooth migration to a new

server environment. Dell has proven

practices, unique tools and flexible

infrastructure options designed

to help you at any stage of your

migration journey –on your terms, as

much or as little as you need. These

offerings are complemented with

world-class Dell services for carrying

out a migration including help with

project management, disposition

analysis, migration planning,

installation, configuration, and

application modernization.

For more information about

how Dell can help with a server

infrastructure refresh, visit: www.dell.

com/2003migration

“ Many of the standard features in Windows

Server 2012 R2 were not available before.”

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