IBM 440 - Manual (Page 73)

Chapter 2. Positioning 59
Manageability and availability
Server consolidation can help you improve manageability and availability of IT
systems in the following ways:
– Enterprise management - Integrated operations allows for consistent
management of all facilities and IT services.
– Consistent performance - Providing consistent response time at peak load
periods is very important.
– Dependability - Commonly cited problems of distributed environments
include frequency of outages and excessive requirements for manual
intervention by the IT staff.
In addition, it provides the following benefits:
– It is easier to enforce consistent user policies in a consolidated
environment.
– Fewer servers lead to a simpler network structure that is easier to
manage.
– Reorganization following mergers or acquisitions is easier in a
well-controlled environment.
– Consolidation encourages standardization of tools, processes, and
technologies to provide a stable and consistent application platform.
Server consolidation can help you improve data access and protection in the
following ways:
– Network technology - The growth of networking and network speeds is
enabling the centralization of IT networks today and will continue and
expand into the future.
– Fragmentation and duplication of data - This is a core issue in most
organizations with large numbers of distributed servers.
– Physical security - Consolidation of servers in a central data center can
restrict unwanted access and ensure a more secure environment.
– Integrity, local backup and recovery - Enterprises are concerned about the
dangers of business disruption, customer lawsuits, and regulatory action
in the event of severe data loss, and they need to implement effective
disaster recovery procedures.
Server consolidation can help you leverage existing investments in the
following ways:
– Expand existing servers - Add new capabilities to the existing installation
rather than to deploy new dedicated servers.
– Optimization of capacity utilization - In order to manage performance and
have a level of acceptable, consistent response times, enterprises typically