IT organizations have undergone rapid, organic growth and organizations continually scramble to meet the ever-increasing demands of the business. New applications, emerging technologies and alternative solutions have mushroomed. Mergers and acquisitions have added to the proliferation of these resources. The result is a landscape of multiple data centers, large and small, scattered across the enterprise, each with a significant population of grossly underutilized technology assets. Some of those assets are even be located outside of the data centers — in branch offices, storage closets, or employees’ homes. This rampant decentralization has inevitably resulted in a complex process that is fragmentation. This has led to increased interest in data center consolidation
CONSOLIDATION/MIGRATION BACKGROUND
Risk and uncertainty shadow every project but loom large over complex projects such as data center consolidation/migrations because migrations involves multiple layers of personnel — both staff and contractors .
Identifying the potential pitfalls involves pulling together information from many sources.
While there may be little practical knowledge of all the risks and hazards that can await consolidation/migrations team, the consequences of not having a functional IT environment when users need it are significant .
One solution is to develop plans that key off the loss of IT functions and to prioritize system needs relative to the mission.Having response plans for various scenarios, you can ensure that critical systems and applications remain available.
Each consolidation/migration has its own unique set of challenges, such as the destination not being ready for occupancy on time, delayed hardware delivery or the loading dock not being large enough to accommodate the equipment.
Not only do you have to plan for risks occurring, but you need to include time in the schedule to accommodate changes and adapt to modifications as issues surface.
There are three primary components that must be established to ensure a successful consolidation, develop the consolidation reference architecture, define the next generation attributes, and define the service catalog for the consolidated datacenter.
To accomplish this a highly interactive process is needed to identify, prioritize, and map the threats, risks, mitigation actions, possible roadblocks and solutions required to consolidate/migrate and transition data center workload. The results of this process will be:
Develop A Comprehensive Understanding Of Transition Plan.
Based On Sound Consolidation Experience WithOther Organizations
Evaluates Weaknesses and Identifies Enabling Technologies or Actions that Mitigate Risks
Prioritization And Focus Of Critical Resources That Enable Reliable Consolidation/Migrations
Leverages Internal Customer Expertise Relative To Data Center Consolidation/Migrations
Introduction Of Methods Or Approaches To Drive Higher levels of Availability
Each datacenter need to be reviewed for existence of critical processes, the effectiveness of those processes and usability of the process. Some processes include:
Virtualization & Server Clustering
Business Continuity & Data protection
Backup & De-Duplication
Data Classification
Virtual Tape
Tiered Storage
Compliance & Regulation
Heterogeneous Platform Management
Private Cloud & Managed Services
KEY CONSOLIDATION FACTORS
DISCOVERY AREAS TO BE ESTABLISHED AND DISCUSSED
Current Configuration
# of: Platforms, Servers, Storage Arrays, Operating Systems, Hypervisors, Etc.
Data Bases
Unstructured Data Types & Uses
IT Architecture
Growth & Change Rate
Critical Systems
Key Dependencies & Data Flow
Managed Services
Transaction Volume
Time of Day
Day of Week
Level of Integration
3-tier Architecture
Shared Infrastructure
Management Structure/Organization
Requirements
Budget Cost
Level of Effort
Legal, Regulatory
Current Configuration
# of: Platforms, Servers, Storage Arrays, Operating Systems, Hypervisors, Etc.
Data Bases
Unstructured Data Types & Uses
IT Architecture
Growth & Change Rate
Critical Systems
Key Dependencies & Data Flow
Managed Services
Transaction Volume
Time of Day
Day of Week
Level of Integration
3-tier Architecture
Shared Infrastructure
Management Structure/Organization
Requirements
Budget Cost
Level of Effort
Legal, Regulatory
Consolidation / Migration Strategy Alternatives
Migration Approaches
Number of sites
Facility Requirements
Migration Approaches
Enabling Technologies
Types of Data Replication & Data Migration
Network Capacity
Swing Equipment
Server Consolidation: Physical-to-Physical; Physical-to-Virtual; Virtual-to-Physical
Storage Consolidation: Shared-to-Shared; Dedicated-to-dedicated; Dedicated-to-shared
Service Level Requirements
Service Delivery Model
High-Level Road Map
Major Segments
Key Milestones
Critical Components
Estimated Duration
Supplemental Resource Requirements
Significant Uncertainties
THE HIGH LEVEL CONSOLIDATION PLANNING ACTIVITIES INCLUDE:
Hardware Planning & Implementation
Identify Hardware and Site Requirements
Generate Hardware Plan for New Equipment
Allow for Install/uninstall
Asset Transfer
Software Planning & Implementation
Identify Software Licenses
Generate Detail Software Migration Plan
Transfer Software Licenses
Network Planning & Implementation
Identify Relevant Network Requirements
Generate Detail Network Migration Plan
Order Install & Test Network Facilities and Hardware
Establish Network Connectivity Between User
Application Planning & Implementation
Identify Affected Applications and Development Applications Profiles
Generate Detail Application Migration Plan
Identify Business Interface Requirements
Operations Planning
Identify Operational Procedures
Generate Detailed Migration Plan
Start User Testing of Migrated Applications
Unit, Systems and Stress Test
Migrated Application Workload
Outside Services and One-off Services
Identify Outside Services Contracts & One-off Services
Transfer Contracts In-house
Transition Management
Shadow Existing Management Organization
Identify Management Process
Migration Process
Migration Planning
Identify Application Changes
Identify Service and Capacity Requirements
Develop User Acceptance Criteria
Identify Target Migration Schedule Conflicts
Migration Execution
Conduct Migration Status Reviews
Perform User Acceptance Tests
Problem Identification and Resolution
Cut-over
Post Migration
Conduct Post-migration Status Meeting
Conduct Service Agreement Reviews
Problem Identification and Resolution
Human Resource Plan
Develop an Organizational Staffing Plan
Identify Staffing Requirement and Skill Sets
Identify Surplus Resource Conditions
Transition Process
Payroll Processing and Adjustments
Financial Management Plan
Acquire Project Funding for Expense and Capital
Prepare Budget
Track Monthly Expenses
Prepare Monthly Budget to Actual
Facility Management Plan
Determine Impact of Lease Stream2
Identify Existing Facility Issues
WRAP-UP
The suggestions presented in this article are intended to help navigate through the formation of data center consolidation project. The consolidated, virtualized, service-oriented environment will provide the foundation to transform to cloud computing. With cloud computing, you can multiply the benefits of consolidation for even greater cost reduction, increased agility, and higher service quality.
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