Green Information Technology Strategic Plan - Departmental ...

6.0 OCIO Impact Matrix
te c h n o l o g y: desktop energy m a n a g e m e n t softWare.
me a s u re: re d u c e u n n e c e s s a r y poWer c o n s u m p t i o n
by a u t o m a t i c a l l y t u r n i n g o f f m o n i t o r s
h a rd d r i v e s a n d p l a c i n g systems i n t o
s t a n d b y a t t h e desktop.
te c h n o l o g y: mo d e l i n g a n d m o n i t o r i n g t o o l s.
me a s u re: co n t i n u a l strategy f o r t h e d e c re a s e.
6.2.5 Technology Change and Improvement
Virtualization Deployments
Virtualization is a technology mostly used in data centers
to create logical environments that completely simulate
the actions of the underlying hardware. Executables are
performed at the logical level or in the virtual machine
which pool physical resources to carry out the needed task.
The physical resources themselves are no longer dedicated
to a single system or function. Instead, virtualization
software acts as a data manager that sends commands to
physical resources based on utilization needs. Successful
virtualization provides the ability to pool and consolidate
physical resources, enabling less reliance on individual
pieces of hardware, higher equipment utilization rates, less
application downtime, and more organizational flexibility.
Physical consolidation of USDA’s data centers enable
virtualization to be more effectively deployed across the
enterprise.
LAN Virtualization
USDA plans to utilize Local Area Network (LAN)
Virtualization, or VLAN, to provide better network
management, higher security capabilities, and greater
scalability. VLAN will allow multiple LANs to be
controlled at the virtual level regardless of physical locations.
Reconfigurations can be handled through the virtualization
software and deployed across multiple LANs for simpler
administration. The green benefits of VLAN are provided
through the streamlining efficiencies achieved.
te c h n o l o g y: vlan so f t W a r e
me a s u re: nu m b e r o f lans p re-implementation
c o m p a re d to n u m b e r o f v i r t u a l lan
g r o u p i n g s.
Supporting Environmentally Responsible Technology at USDA
Storage Virtualization
Deploying storage virtualization technology in enterprise
data centers will enable USDA to pool storage resources and
easily scale storage up as needed. The virtualization software
acts as the management platform and performs all storage
functions as the shared service operator. The ability to allocate
storage resources on-demand, integrate storage products
from various vendors, configure for high availability, and
reduce the total cost of ownership are among the benefits
that storage virtualization provides. Storage virtualization
will further enable improvements in storage sizing through
thin provisioning and will facilitate more efficient allocation
of physical storage resources. USDA’s use of these storage
technologies will create savings in data center power and
cooling requirements, thus increasing energy efficiency.
te c h n o l o g y: st o r a g e v i r t u a l i z a t i o n softWare.
me a s u re: re d u c t i o n in s t o r a g e equipment
i n v e n t o r y post-implementation to
i n v e n t o r y p re-implementation.
me a s u re: pe rc e n t a g e o f s t o r a g e s p a c e used in t h e
silo o r b o x (s t o r a g e utilization a c ro s s
t h e enterprise).
me a s u re: am o u n t o f f l o o r s p a c e saved (sq ft)
Server Virtualization
f r o m d e c o m m i s s i o n i n g s t o r a g e
equipment.
Server virtualization software creates a virtual server that
decouples applications and operating systems from their
underlying hardware, allowing multiple operating systems
and multiple applications to run on a single server. This
drastically improves the server utilization rate because the
server is no longer functioning in a single application,
single server ‘silo’ model. Instead, the server is having work
allocated to it by the virtual machine that is communicating
with multiple platforms.
This technology will also scale across many physical
servers, creating a pool of resources through which USDA’s
applications can function. It is estimated that most servers
have a utilization rate in the 10-20% range, meaning that
servers are operating at an average of only 10-20% of their
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