2.1 Advantages of server consolidation

The proliferation of servers in Domino environments over time has led to a cost impact to

many businesses. However, different businesses interpret those costs in different ways. While

some want to exclusively focus on managing capital and operating cost, others also view the

costs from a serviceability perspective. Thus, when businesses choose to execute a server

consolidation strategy, they may select different measures for success depending on their

consolidation goals.

Organizations matching the following profile generally make good candidates for server

consolidation:

_ Have a directive to reduce IT costs

_ Have no control over their IT costs

_ Find that they need to integrate their distributed systems

_ Find it hard to retain system administration personnel

_ Have server management issues

_ Need to reduce staffing costs

_ Have backup and recovery problems

_ Have had mergers or acquisitions

_ Have vital data scattered and unsecured

2.1.1 Domino growth in small businesses

Small businesses often have very limited IT budgets, which leads them to limit the number of

servers and operational resources they are willing to dedicate to Domino services. Over time,

many of these businesses may begin to leverage Domino to provide a common platform for

e-mail and collaborative applications, as well as provide Internet based services to their user

population or external clients and partners.

Over time, issues related to Domino usage in small businesses display similar patterns:

_ Very few production Domino domains.

_ Domino servers located in a single office, sometimes tasked with multiple functions.

_ Disparate hardware vendor platforms purchased over time.

_ Servers sized to support workload profiles of older versions of Domino.

_ Limited performance tuning and workload balancing due to over-tasking of administrator

resources.

_ Inability to manage orphaned or abandoned applications.

_ Servers supporting both mail and application environments usually named mixed servers

where load for each specific usage is difficult to predict. (Application usage and

interactions with x-users is hard to size.)

Figure 2-1 on page 9 shows the typical Domino growth pattern in small businesses.

Small businesses can generally benefit most from consolidation by:

_ Reducing the number of physical servers supported

_ Standardizing on larger hardware from a single vendor

_ Working through the consolidation process to identify and eliminate abandoned or

redundant applications

_ Re-architecting system interfaces and administrative processes to simplify replication,

mail routing, and user management

2.1.2 Domino growth in large businesses

Large businesses are also cost conscious, but due to their size they are required to define

complex Domino architectures to meet the need of their businesses. Domino services tend to

be distributed across multiple sites, and in many cases consist of multiple domains. Domino

administration tends to be a specialization, but this function also tends to be distributed, not

only among different sites, but also across different Domino domains and organization

hierarchies.

Over time, issues related to Domino usage in large businesses also display similar patterns:

_ Multiple production Domino domains segregating specific functions, such as:

– Mail

– Notes applications

– Web applications

– Application testing and staging

– Internet gateway

– External application services

_ Domino servers located in multiple locations, mostly segregated by task or function

_ Disparate hardware vendor platforms purchased over time

_ Inability to rapidly deploy new versions of or updated to Domino server software

_ Differing cost-performance ratios at different locations due to workload imbalance

_ Inefficient Domino administration and support due to excessive administrative role

fragmentation

_ Uncontrolled growth of Domino-based collaborative applications

_ Difficulty responding to major organizational changes, such as acquisitions or divestitures

Figure 2-2 shows the typical Domino growth pattern in large businesses.

Large businesses can generally benefit the most from consolidation by:

_ Reducing the number of physical servers and the number of sites supported

_ Upgrading server platforms to highly scalable systems, for example:

– 32-bit systems to 64-bit systems

– Workgroup server operating systems (such as 32-bit Windows or Linux) to enterprise

operating systems (such as AIX®, Solaris, OS/400®, and so on)

_ Implementing operational management processes for applications to fully control the

deployment life cycle of application, including removing and archiving expired applications

_ Reducing the number of Domino domains (especially mail domains) to simplify mail

routing, replication, and systems management

_ Reducing the fragmentation of administrative functions to allow better consistency and

faster response to support requests

_ Providing more effective system utilization of Domino resources through centralization and

workload balancing

2.1.3 Reduction or control of IT costs

Controlling IT costs is the main reason most businesses give for consolidating servers. There

are several dimensions that make up the total IT cost picture:

_ Hardware costs: Reducing the number of server, storage devices, peripherals

_ Software costs: Lowering software licensing and renewal costs for Domino, operating

systems, and supporting software

_ Support staff: Reducing the number of human resources needed to administer or manage

the environment, as well as ongoing training costs

_ Operational costs: Reducing costs of floor space, power consumption, cooling systems,

and so on

_ “Hidden costs”: Costs associated with inconsistent or incompatible hardware and

supporting software, system failures, data loss, security exposures, and so on

2.1.4 Improved manageability and availability

Consolidation can help improve overall system control in the following ways:

_ Enterprise management: Allow for a consistent tools, facilities, and systems management

services through integrated operations.

_ Continuous operations: Properly consolidated systems can provide businesses the ability

to provide 27 x 7 access to mail and applications.

_ Consistent performance: Systems consolidated onto similar hardware and operating

system platforms are likely to have similar performance profiles, making it easier to

perform workload balancing.

_ Dependability: Problems related to distributed systems, such as frequency of outages or

the need for manual intervention by remote support staff, can be reduced with

consolidated systems.

_ Minimize operational constraints: Increasing the number of servers and peripherals at

multiple locations can strain a business’ ability to find sufficient floor space, power

connections, and cooling capacity, especially in smaller offices.

2.1.5 Improved data access and protection

Businesses can protect distributed data resources though consolidation:

_ Reduce data duplication and fragmentation: Access problems can be reduced by

consolidating distributed collaborative applications with similar data, or containing only

subsets of data due to the application of selective replication formulas.

_ Apply enterprise data security: While Domino has a robust application security model,

consolidating applications, domains, and certification structures can improved overall

security administration.

_ Improve security of physical assets: Reducing the number of data center locations can

restrict unwanted or unauthorized access to server hardware and help ensure a more

secure environment.

_ Centralized backup, recovery, and integrity management: Consolidating servers and

storage to allow for the development of effective disaster recovery plans, minimize

business disruption due to severe data loss, and allow for the effective implementation of

data retention and management policies to conform with business requirements and

regulatory bodies.

2.1.6 Leveraging existing investments

Consolidation can help businesses leverage existing investments where excess capacity

exists:

_ Expand existing servers: Add new capabilities to existing installations rather than deploy to

new dedicated servers.

_ Optimize capacity utilization: Since many businesses manage performance and have a

level of acceptable, consistent response times by typically running servers at 50 to 60

percent CPU utilization, consolidation can help minimize the number of underutilized

servers. These underutilized servers are often found in a distributed environment and in

those environments that use server platforms that cannot perform dynamic resource

balancing across logical partitions

_ Optimize skilled resources: Within distributed environments, Domino administration and

management is often fragmented, with many remote resources only fulfilling part-time

Domino support roles. Also, sites may implement different vendor architectures and

applications, requiring differing skill sets at remote locations. Consolidation to standard

hardware and software can allow dedicated experts with in-depth training to support the

environment and manage ongoing systems and architectural changes.

2.1.7 Reduced technical complexity

Client-server systems are usually seen as a three-tiered logical architecture. As implemented,

Domino architectures tend to become multi-tiers systems over time, with broad networks of

local servers, replication hubs, and so on. Consolidation can help reduce this technical

complexity by reducing or eliminating the need for hubs and gateways.

2.1.8 Scalability and workload growth

Consolidation can help businesses handle scalability and workload growth issues in the

following ways:

_ System scalability: Centralization and server consolidation can make it more cost effective

to:

– Implement failover solutions

– Provide the ability to manage peak usage without degraded performance

– Provide for upgrade paths while minimizing the impact on operations or users

_ Granular upgrades: Consolidation can ease the ability to grow the number of users,

applications, system service, or data supported without causing major disruptions to the

production environment.