Efficient IT

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It's time that companies started applying the same intellectual rigour and financial acumen to IT purchasing decisions as they do to every other kind of capital expenditure.

That's the message from Chris Gabriel, head of solutions at Logicalis, who warns that companies that fail to do so will find that their capacity planning projects quickly run into trouble.

"In the current economic climate, if you're a CIO asking your chief executive and finance director to pay out for new data centre space, you should be really, really sure that the space you have right now is maxed out," he says.

But in fact, he adds, today's data centres are hiding an "inefficient truth". They're running nowhere close to full capacity - but appear to be ‘full', because they're cluttered by under-utilised servers and storage systems, hampered by power and cooling constraints, and littered with redundant or infrequently used applications and data.

"Trying to react to today's dynamic business environment is no mean feat when your operations are underpinned by flabby IT infrastructures like that," says Gabriel. "What you need is a lean, mean IT department that can devote more time to innovation and less to keeping the existing infrastructure up and running."

Efficient IT relies on targeted capacity planning that gets the most out of the existing infrastructure and streamlines it so that it provides a glove-like fit with the actual needs of the business.

"If power and space came free of charge, capacity requirements wouldn't be an issue," says Gabriel. "But they don't - and CIOs that continue to act as if they do will soon get caught out."

Your Comments and Questions

Jan Zelezinski, 5 months ago

Jane,The simple answer is yes, we are now seeing DC consolidation more on the CIO's agenda and with server and storage virtualization technologies helping reduce the DC footprint and power requirements. Improved information management is also high on the agenda as this reduces the amount of data storage space required, so lots' of intiatives on the go.

Jane Bevin, 5 months ago

Do many companies address this problem by reducing the number of data centres they have in the first place - whether through outsourcing, using web-based apps and/or other means? If not, do you think more will seriously consider doing so in the future?

Chris Gabriel, 5 months ago

Simon, I am not sure on the Leicester statistic, but, with IT now creeping up on the airline industry for carbon emissions the urgency for us all to do something to be more efficient and control our energy requirements is essential. EasyJet sell themselves as a green airline because they use new technology and load their aircraft to 85% on major routes. When we are only loading the average Intel server to 5-10% then we really do have to act responsibly and that means acting efficiently.

Simon Ridsdale, 5 months ago

I'm not sure if this statistic has been taken slightly out of context, but I've just been reading some research from BroadGroup which states: The average UK data-centre uses more power in a year than the city of Leicester! If that's true then the IT department has more than cost savings to think about, it has a responsibility to the environment to do something about this!

Chris Gabriel, 5 months ago

Martin, your spot on. DC Capacity planning is now defining Business Capacity Planning. IT defines BCP pretty much today and the DC is at the heart of that capacity and capability.

Martin Hodges, 5 months ago

Obviously there's also an energy saving argument for better capacity planning in data centres - which I reckon will become even more pressing the more focus investors and analysts start to give corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.