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Consolidation Comes of Age
OGY How server consolidation can help business to meet the economic uncertainty
of 2008/09. By Simon Kelson, Managing Director of Atlanta Technology.
TECHNOL
The string of economic events service delivery (to employees been addressed and ensure
TION
during the last few months as well as customers), and a that all critical information is
have laid the foundations for lowered carbon footprint. replicated in case of any issues
an uncertain climate for that may arise at a later date.
business in 2009; the run on As data storage requirements
Northern Rock; the credit continue to expand at such A brief history of virtualisation
CONSOLIDA
crunch; the slowing of the dramatic rates, the Taking it back a step, if we
housing market. management of data can ascribe the era of modern
become a huge burden on a electronic computing as
Business has always been company’s resources. It can commencing with the
driven by the need for ROI become a headache for IT invention of the transistor in
from expenditure, and this is departments to monitor and 1947, virtualisation is relatively
especially true when we control if they are not old, for the foundation
consider technology and its operating in a centralized way. principle emerged in 1959.
big price ticket. There is no Applied in computing since the
doubt that in an uncertain Over the years, we have seen 1960s, it was esoteric, a
economic climate, technology some organisations whose data computing technique largely
investment decisions need to has run away with itself. From developed by IBM for their
deliver more than just single- being stored across numerous mainframes. Interest was
point ROI. Investment now servers, tape drives and even minimal through the 80s and
needs to deliver an extra on CDs, creating a vast 90s as the Microsoft and Intel
dimension beyond mere ROI. A management conundrum. partnership set about
good candidate for this ‘fourth Effective data storage is not revolutionising the computer
dimension’ is Wisdom. simply about buying lots of industry. It has now come of
storage drives, it is about age, emerging into the
This ROI with a bigger-bang, looking at centralizing data mainstream to occupy a
‘ROIW’, if you will, carries extra storage and ensuring a strategy position of great significance.
weight in the investment is in place to back it up,
rationale, the Wisdom inherent replicate it and make the data What does it do and
in the fact that it addresses consistent. who produces it?
multiple business issues. The technique of sever
This is where server and virtualisation allows the
One technology through which storage virtualisation comes creation of multiple ‘virtual
businesses can address into its own. By centralizing machines’ within a single
multiple issues is the data it brings with it a huge physical server. Allied to
application of server and amount of efficiencies and storage virtualisation, this
storage virtualisation. This enables organisations to be creates a significant reduction
enables a consolidated much more dynamic. An in an organisation’s server
architecture that produces effective disaster recovery plan hardware requirement.
benefits such as reduced can then be implemented once
operating costs, improved the storage requirements have One company that has been
MAR/APR 09 WWW.SNS-UK.CO.UK
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