- Consolidating Servers
- Consolidating Applications
- Consolidating Storage
- Consolidating Shared Services
- Consolidating Networks
- Consolidating Data Centers
- Consolidating People Resources and Processes
- Related Resources
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Consolidating People Resources and Processes
In any consolidation project, you must not neglect the people and processes you use to manage your environment. Time after time, when we work with clients who have both mainframe and distributed-computing environments, we find that the mainframe side of the house runs smoothly and problem free, while the distributed-computing side of the house is often chaotic, with few developed standards and procedures. The problems that result from this situation demonstrate the importance of resolving these people and process issues. While mainframes consistently run with high availability and high service levels, distributed computing systems often suffer from low service levels and low availability.
Some consulting groups estimate that only 20 percent of data center availability is hardware or technology related; the other 80 percent is estimated to be directly related to people and process issues. The lesson is that successful consolidations must address standards, people, and processes. Without these, availability and service levels may be compromised.
Another benefit of implementing standards and best practices is that you frequently see a 10–20 percent reduction in TCO. You may be able to realize these types of savings by following the recommendations outlined in the Sun BluePrints book Consolidation in the Data Center (ISBN #0-13-045495-8).