Summary
This chapter provided a definition of consolidation, and explained how data centers have evolved to a point where consolidation has become necessary. In addition, it explained the causes and effects of complexity in today's IT environment. In general, with complexity comes increased costs, decreased service levels, and decreased availability. Consolidation seeks to reverse this trend. It is a movement towards higher service levels and lower service level costs. This goal is the reason consolidation has been a hot topic for several years, and it is the reason today's economic environment has accelerated the move to consolidate not just servers, but everything in the IT environment.
As we dig deeper into consolidation in the following chapters, it's important to remember that the reason for consolidation is really very simple:
If you consolidate such that you reduce the number of devices you have to manage, and if you reduce the number of ways you manage them, you can reduce the complexity of your environment.
If you reduce the complexity of your environment, you can increase the efficiency of your infrastructure.
If you increase the efficiency of your infrastructure, you increase service levels and availability, and you lower your TCO.