By following a few guidelines, data centres can effectively put in new systems and technologies to decrease powering and cooling costs, says Susan du Bois, consulting manager at Symantec.
She adds that it has become necessary to find innovative technological solutions to an environment that has become overcrowded, overheated and expensive. The result is financial losses due to lost or stalled business and unmet strategic objectives.
Du Bois says the solution implemented by most companies is to invest in and implement innovative technology solutions aimed at delivering savings or generating revenue. By following a few practical guidelines, organisations can extend the life of their current data centres, while freeing up space for strategic initiatives and reducing power and cooling requirements.
The top problems found in data centres today are space, power, cooling and an increase in the raw cost of operations, says Du Bois. Organisations need to find ways to better utilise their existing resources. The first step when undergoing an initiative to optimise a data centre is understanding optimisation, she says.
Companies also need to understand what tangible results are expected or anticipated as a result of any data centre optimisation initiative. Some key benefits of space optimisation to anticipate include not having to relocate their data centres, the revival of stalled strategic initiatives, an increase in the utilisation of existing assets, and a reduction in power and cooling requirements.
A variety of activities can help organisations quickly address space limitations in the data centre: "Organisations can also regain space by consolidating the workload from multiple under-utilised servers to a smaller number of servers. Often, there is an opportunity to virtualise server resources by replacing one or more physical devices with virtual devices that run on shared hardware.
"Once an organisation has identified its objectives and priorities for data centre optimisation and has assessed its data centre space utilisation, it should consult with each equipment owner in the data centre as well as with other key stakeholders to understand business needs as well as the role of the company's portfolio of applications, services, and hardware in meeting those needs. This requires the focused efforts of a dedicated team with experience in space-creation initiatives from both a business and an IT perspective.
"The main point here is that organisations have many choices and they're not all equal. With just a little investment in upfront planning, we can help the IT team evaluate the options and select the approach that is the best fit for their circumstances," she concludes.
Share