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Decommissioning comatose servers, improving the Some organizations may even perceive that the effort
utilization of your remaining servers, and managing and cost of launching a decommissioning program is
server refresh rates can vastly improve the efficiency too much, or its just not a priority. In reality, however,
of your data center, while saving energy, reducing the time and money spent on server efficiency will
carbon emissions, and lowering operating costs. In be rapidly returned to the company. Uptime Institute
fact, the biggest driver of operational cost savings is experts can help your organization create and execute
reducing IT hardware count. a server strategy that will deliver significant cost
savings and efficiency benefits.
Its not hard to see how the savings add up, given that
underutilized and comatose servers typically account
for 20-30% of a companys server install base. Not It has been said that the greenest data center
only do those servers draw power, but they also place is the one thats never built.
demands on facility infrastructure and cooling systems, That is the main reason we have our server
and contribute to personnel costs. Systematically and decommissioning program at Barclays. We are
repetitively eliminating these servers can drastically looking to shrink our data center footprint and
improve your overall IT efficiency by freeing up benefit from the savings that this affords us,
valuable resources that can then be put to better use. while allowing ourselves to massively expand
Yet many organizations resist taking action. Despite our overall compute capability. When obsolete
the preponderance of industry evidence, they think servers are removed in the thousands, it creates
that comatose servers arent a problem in their the capacity that we need to bring the next
data centereven though theyve never done a generation of systems in. We save in space;
server audit to determine if thats the case. Too we save in power. It helps us meet our carbon
often, IT and Facilities teams are operating in silos targets. When we eliminate or virtualize a server,
with organizational structures that dont facilitate we also save on network, SAN, and software
collaboration, creating a disconnect between costs. We end up in a cleaner, safer, cheaper
equipment and the computing activity it supports. place with the capacity in hand that we need to
continue to grow our business. There is real work,
and some risk, in getting this job done, but the
benefits are simply too many to ignore.
both immediately and ongoing. Dollars saved can be server life cycle management
restored to the corporate bottom line or applied toward Evaluate installed monitoring tools
new business initiatives and investments. Energy use
Identify the servers to target
can be reduced, benefitting your budgetand the
planetwith reduced carbon emissions. Map out processes and define responsibilities
The OpEx savings from efficient server management Evergreen the server decommissioning process
are significant; so are the capital expenditures you Uptime Institute will facilitate a 1- to 2-day on-
can avoid. Housing comatose and underutilized site workshop, provide a memo of findings and
servers drives your facility to capacity much sooner. recommendations appropriate to the workshop
Decommissioning servers and increasing utilization proceedings, and outline prudent next steps.
frees up white space and extends the life of an
existing facility, increasing the return on your original Ready to Get Started?
data center investment. Take advantage of our multi-million dollar, decades-
From decommissioning efforts alone, leading data long investment in Efficient IT research, innovation,
center organizations have lowered their energy bills education, and evangelization. Put impactful efficiency
by millions of dollars; lowered carbon emissions by practices to work in your data center.
will put your organization on the path towards results or by phone at: +1 206.706.4149
like these.
server efficiency plan can also employ virtualization industry analyst and data company. Uptime Institute has office locations
in the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, U.K., Spain, U.A.E., Russia,
and adjustments to server refresh rates to further
Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
increase efficiency.
Visit www.uptimeinstitute.com for more information.