Managing Data Center Complexity as Most Effective Way to Improve IT Efficiency

Avocent Corp. revealed results of an independent survey that showed companies are seeking better visibility into their data center operations to help mitigate business continuity challenges, better manage virtualized systems and applications, and control power consumption and overall complexity.

The survey was conducted in spring 2008 by Actionable Research Inc. for Avocent and polled 299 executives and IT managers in the US in manufacturing, high technology, retail, banking, healthcare, education and government, asking them what they found to be the top challenges in aligning IT with business objectives.

“Our survey confirms that businesses are indeed challenged most by the need to effectively manage the increased complexity in today’s data centers, while at the same time keeping networks running smoothly, and power consumption costs down,” said Ben Grimes, Avocent CTO and vice president of corporate strategy. “The findings further tell us that many administrators lack the tools they need to properly manage power usage in data centers – only 55 percent say they can monitor power usage today, and even then it’s mostly at the UPS level. These statistics show there’s a huge opportunity to improve overall data center management and a strong desire to implement ‘Green IT’ solutions.”

MONITORING AND MANAGING POWER USAGE

Survey respondents said that energy conservation was the most difficult issue to resolve with their current tools. Respondents felt that managing the total cost of power was the second most difficult task, and many of the respondents noted that their interest and work with virtualization technology were influenced by the hope of ultimate energy savings. Some of the survey results regarding energy usage:

• 33 percent of companies have implemented server virtualization for energy-saving goals.

• 55 percent of companies can measure power usage in their data center, primarily at the UPS level.

• 83 percent consider the ability to measure power consumption at the entire data center level as “valuable” or “extremely valuable.”

VIRTUALIZATION: LOST OR FAILED VIRTUAL SERVERS

While respondents said they had begun to move toward server virtualization, mainly for its cost reductions and energy savings promised, they also revealed that the technology offered unique challenges. A majority of respondents have rolled out some level of server virtualization, but, of those respondents, 24 percent have experienced a disappearance of a virtual server from their system. Furthermore, 18 percent have permanently lost a virtual server. The top reason for deploying virtual servers was for cost savings. In particular, of those polled, 32 percent stated they initially looked to virtualization as a means of decreasing hardware costs. Their responses, however, showed two key concerns related to managing server virtualization:

• 45 percent said they had concerns about the lack of expertise that IT personnel had with virtualization.

• 44 percent said they were concerned that virtual servers could fail from a component failure in a single physical server.

100% NETWORK UPTIME: STILL NOT THERE

Business continuity, in the form of network uptime, is a constant challenge for those polled. There are potentially significant costs tied to downtime, including disgruntled or lost customers, reduced worker productivity, and reduced revenues tied to network failure. Survey responses related to downtime include:

• 35 percent of companies have lost mission-critical data due to unplanned downtime.

• 43 percent of companies reported that they experience, on average, up to five unplanned downtime events per month. Of those,17 percent experienced two to four hours of collective unplanned downtime per month, mostly due to hardware or power failures.

• 86 percent of companies stated that any unplanned downtime causes a business issue, and an average of 12 percent lost employee productivity due to those unplanned events.

BUDGETS

The survey also found that businesses want to do more with the same or fewer IT resources. Those polled say their organizations planned to maximize use of their existing servers and other equipment to the fullest extent possible, through the end of 2008. For 2007, respondents reported that IT budgets included an average of 39 percent going toward equipment and technology, and 36 percent toward personnel. These numbers were consistent across the different segments in the survey, with the largest companies spending slightly more on personnel than others. According to respondents, for 2008, there is little or no projected budget distribution change, both overall and among companies of similar size.

The survey provides insight into the nature of challenges companies face when managing complex system, network and data center challenges, as well as the unique issues faced when integration between dissimilar networks is necessary. Regardless of the specific case, it is clear from survey responses that issues relating to data center complexity will continue to shape many of the data center decisions made throughout the remainder of 2008 and beyond.