Many enterprises have begun the consolidation of servers within the data center. With the growing use of virtualization and the new, more powerful generation of servers now available, there is a growing push towards consolidation for enterprises of all sizes. One issue becomes critical: Which existing servers are the best candidates for migration?
Enterprises can begin to select those servers that will provide the greatest savings by identifying the server characteristics that lend themselves to easy migrations. These include:
- Physically isolated servers which are difficult to maintain or service.
- Low utilization servers.
- Servers approaching the end of life, scheduled for upgrades or moves within the data center.
- Older technologies that have been amortized.
- Multiple servers within a single department or organization.
By carefully evaluating the equipment and applications to be consolidated, business unit push-back can be reduced, the migration process accelerated and expenses reduced, without significant disruption in operations.