IBM 440 - Manual (Page 72)

58 IBM ^ xSeries 440 Planning and Installation Guide
A single point of control allows enterprises to:
– Reduce or eliminate department operational costs
– Reduce some software licenses
– Reduce number of systems, disk storage costs
– Reduce maintenance charges
– Avoid multiple copies of the same application on distributed systems
– Reduce owner operational costs
– Offer better availability of service
– Improve systems management
– Have better version control management
– Have better software distribution
– Reduce risk and increase security
Giving users better services
With a consolidated infrastructure, end users can count on round-the-clock
service, seven days a week. The response time is much better than with an
overly distributed environment, and the data is more easily accessible while
being highly protected. The control procedures are simpler, while security
becomes even higher. And information sharing is improved, giving end users
increased data consistency. The availability of service is improved mainly due
to a reduction in the time needed to communicate between clients and
servers in a single location.
Regaining flexibility
The standardization of procedures, releases, and servers also makes it easier
to install new application software, for example, Internet and intranet,
electronic commerce, and so on. In today’s fast moving environment,
computing resource consolidation enables a trouble-free upgrade of the
information system and less costly adaptation to organization or environment
changes. Enterprises can react more quickly to market changes, since
storage is readily available and can easily be reallocated.
Avoid floor space constraints
While a small server may be easily fit into a closet, as compute demands
increase, enterprises find that suitable floor space is hard to find for
proliferating small servers. The solution is a central site outfitted with
appropriate power, cooling, access to communications links, and so on, and
populated with more powerful systems, each giving more performance in the
same footprint.
Reduction of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
There are several costs associated with server consolidation, including:
– Hardware costs — new servers and infrastructure, upgrades
– Software costs — fewer software licenses are required with fewer servers
– Disruption costs — migration, change management