Baseline Magazine - January/February 2009

“Many organizations now realize that as much as half of the electricity they purchase is going into the data center,” says Jim Barclay, CEO of Business Value Consulting Group, a Royalston, Mass.-based firm that evaluates the value of major IT purchases. “Not only is the cost of electricity growing, but it’s unpredictable. Business CFOs do not like unpredictable. They’d rather pay too much in the beginning and not face too many surprises along the way.”

One way to handle the electricity problem is with virtualization, which also provides speed and flexibility. “Virtualization allows you to bring new virtual servers online in a matter of days, not months,” Barclay explains. “Without it, a company with a great product line and an idea can miss a desired market window because its I T can’t respond in time. With virtualization, it can meet the early portion of that window.” Server consolidation customers are saving from 25 percent to 45 percent in utility costs alone, according to a 2008 survey of 800 global corporations conducted jointly by research firm Information Technology Intelligence and security software provider Sunbelt Software. And virtualization/consolidation continues to build momentum. Blade servers account for just over 10 percent of servers sold today, IDC reports, but will account for more than one-quarter of all server shipments by 2011.

“Besides being good for the environment, virtualization is a darn good business strategy,” says Mark Lutchen, a principal in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ advisory practice and author of Managing IT as a Business.

In a recent survey of senior executives in five key regions, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that energy costs are paramount. In fact, 60 percent of the respondents said potential energy savings represent the most important factor in their companies’ environmental decision making.

MERGERS LEAD TO IT CONSOLIDATION

Over the last decade, corporate consolidation has created the need for server consolidation. Mergers and acquisitions have resulted in decentralized technology scat-

tered throughout the world.

“Now, for a variety of reasons, companies are compelled to standardize and bring these disparate technologies together,” Lutchen says. “Why buy a server every time you implement a new system? You’ll have 600 servers, and many of them will be used at just 30 percent capacity.”

The merger of telecom companies Alcatel and Lucent in late 2006 is a prime example. Even before the merger, the two companies planned data center consolidations. Now operating as Alcatel-Lucent, the company has its consolidation plan well under way. It is using Hewlett-Packard-supplied consultancy services and HP power-saving servers, resulting in the consolidation of 25 data centers and 125 server rooms into six data centers and a very small but still-to-be-determined

number of server rooms.

Another HP customer, Mitel Networks, is saving 300,000 a year by reducing its servers from 12 to two and its processors from 24 to 12. And Pfizer is saving considerable but

Virtualizing the Endpoint

CONSIDER THIS SCENARIO: A MAN- ufacturing executive is caught up in a huge inventory/accounting project that must be finished by the next morning. But 5 p.m. is approaching, and the executive needs to get home to take over parental duties while the exec’s spouse heads out for a PTA meeting.

Fortunately, thanks to continued developments in endpoint virtualization technologies, it’s easier than ever for the executive to access the needed Excel file and other work-based applications from a laptop at home in order to complete the job on time.

Seeing the value in this and other benefits to endpoint virtualization— which essentially allows applications to be added and integrated within an

enterprise with considerably fewer system glitches than ever—more IT decision makers are buying solutions that encompass this technology.

In fact, more than three out of four of the approximately 300 IT administrators who responded to a recent survey said their organizations had already launched some form of endpoint virtualization, according to Symantec, which commissioned the study.

“That response surprises us,” says Brad Rowland, director of enterprise marketing for Symantec’s endpoint virtualization line. “This technology is just starting to be included in larger solutions. Before, this was made available as a point-by-point solution that had to be managed separately. Now, it’s part

of a larger platform, and that’s leading to broader acceptance.”

Here are some additional findings:

• 24 percent of participants said the simplification of operating system and application delivery is the most appealing aspect of endpoint virtualization, while 20 percent said lower IT costs offered the greatest appeal.

• 31 percent reported that their organizations spend at least 21 percent of IT resources on managing incom-patibilities between applications on endpoint devices.