As discussed in Part 1, data center consolidation will result in a more efficient use of IT resources, energy savings, decreased vulnerability, and faster repairs. Consulting with an experienced and expert managed services provider will ease the process. Part 2 will discuss Management of Assets & Data, Virtualization, and Best Practices.

Management of Assets and Data

Collecting information regarding assets is important for an effective data center consolidation project. Apart from asset management, knowledge regarding existing data center workloads and their continued management thereafter is crucial. The workloads for applications, data silos, virtual servers, and others components must all be considered for their proper consolidation into the new data center and their management afterwards.

Virtualization

Efforts for improving IT infrastructure performance have focused on the virtualization of applications, desktop computers, and servers. However, perhaps the most typical mistake of data center consolidation projects is misaligning the needs of virtual infrastructure. Careful consideration should be made not only for physical components, but also for the data that will be processed.

Best Practices

Although there is no standardization of how data center consolidation should be deployed, there are existing best practices that will greatly ease the process. For an effective data center consolidation plan, several components must all properly perform their roles to allow the project to succeed. A company’s business goals will determine its needs, but the items below should all be considered important features of the plan.

• IT team and business stakeholder involvement
• Documentation and communication
• Management tools supporting consolidation
• Identification of move groups and their consolidation
• Application migration strategies
• Testing
• Administrator training and development

Prior to migration, IT staff members should consider regulatory compliance, security, and platform integration. Moreover, they will also need to perform comprehensive data gathering beforehand. Absent sound planning, managers may carry over poor practices to the new environment. Identification of all data collection points and understanding of what the existing system has been supporting are also crucial for the planning of the new data center.

Alpha Engineering Business Support

Choosing an expert computer technology-support provider is an important decision for your business. Alpha Engineering Associates has been a trusted partner of many companies in the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis areas since 1990. For affordable client-focused network consulting services and solutions, please call Alpha Engineering Associates today at (410) 295-9500.