Systems consolidation and containment
should be considered if and when a company
undertakes any of the following:
Making major server
or storage purchases
Creating / migrating to a new data
centre
Considering incremental server purchases
Consolidation will eliminate ‘server sprawl’
via deployment of systems as virtual machines (VMs) that
can run safely and move transparently across shared hardware.
This also leverages existing hardware investments by increasing
the resource utilisation of server hardware from 5 - 15%
up to between 60 and 80%.
Consolidation is typically approached in a phased manner
to maximise previous investment and to avoid large capital
outlay.
The initial stage for any consolidation or containment
project is to undergo a capacity planning exercise. There
are various methods of collating data in order to assess
the potential for consolidation.
SystemsUp combine capacity planning data with wider discovery
and business objectives to build a complete picture of
the business case and scope of implementation.
The VMware
capacity planner is one of the tools at our
disposal. This generates a report including
RAM and CPU utilization data that will enable
you to accurately cost and scope a consolidation.
The consolidation is therefore validated by
VMware.
As a Gold VAC partner SystemsUp is fully authorised to
deliver the service.
Features of the capacity planner service include :-
Collection of System Performance data
Detailed Hardware and Software inventory data
Data Manager Function securely sends collected
data to be warehoused at VMware.
Advanced algorithms analyse Capacity optimisation,
aggregation, trending and benchmarking.
Scenario modelling helps model and test planned
or possible scenarios.
Agent-less data collection across multiple platforms,
no significant impact on the network.
Deliverable
- Server consolidation and Virtualisation
assessment report including preliminary TCO
analysis and recommendations, Graphical representations
of collated data.
