Green Information Technology Strategic Plan - Departmental ...

8.5 Data Center Consolidation
—More Organizational Flexibility
The greatest strategic value that organizations gain from
consolidation is an improved ability to efficiently adapt the
infrastructure to incorporate new technologies and respond
to new business requirements.
All types of organizations are driven by the need for high
levels of services and information availability. With a
consistent framework for managing data, IT spends less time
moving data and transforming it into a usable form and,
therefore, can respond more quickly to demands for data
availability. The infrastructure is then better able to adapt
as the organization moves forward. Once the IT center has
completed the consolidation process and achieved the desired
environment, users can expect more rapid deployment of
new applications and features, leading to greater flexibility
to respond to changing demands.
Additionally, this transformation from the legacy ‘silo’ model
to an organizational ‘virtual’ model will enable USDA’s
infrastructure to become more scalable.
—Less Manpower Needed
As a direct result of the ease of maintenance and consolidation
efforts, there will be less manpower needed to maintain the
data centers. Support staff is often recruited on the basis of
how many servers an organization has. Most consolidation
projects aim to reduce costs by freeing staff from mundane
server maintenance tasks. Gartner suggests that more than
70% of the potential savings from a typical project will
come from reduced staffing requirements, but they caution
that this is usually the hardest area in which to pre-quantify
savings, especially since displaced support staff often moves
to new posts elsewhere in the same information services
organization.
Research firm IDC notes that as much as 55% of IT
costs are associated with personnel, and, in a consolidated
environment, the productivity of administrative personnel
increases greatly. IDC studies have shown a 7:1 cost savings
Supporting Environmentally Responsible Technology at USDA
in people management resources when processes and
resources are consolidated. This enables the organization to
focus highly skilled resources on higher value tasks.
IT support including Help Desk consolidation reduces
duplication of responsibilities, enabling cost savings and
gain in efficiency.
Additionally, the individual Agencies/Departments are
relieved of IT burden, making them focus on their core
mission areas.
Thus, the Total Cost for Ownership (TCO) for IT drops
dramatically in a consolidated environment, increasing the
Return On Investment (ROI) for the operations.
—Lower Hardware and Software Costs
Hardware and Software costs will be lowered due to the
lowering of the number of servers and storage used in the
EDCs. Servers and storage are being utilized at a much
higher rate, so when any hardware needs to be replaced, it
will only need to be replaced in the pool of servers. The rate
of servers per application has decreased the need to procure
sustaining IT dramatically.
—Less Floor Space Used
Less floor space translates to less rent and utilities, or the
ability to use the additional space for other office needs.
—Decrease in E-Waste
Due to data management technology and virtualization,
there is a drastic reduction in IT equipment needed at
USDA. As a direct result, future e-waste produced from our
data centers also decreases in the technology refresh cycle.
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