After making our architectural decisions, we moved beyond slide presentations to more detailed talks with vendors. Some helped Dirk and Marvin research specs for the new applications and collect data on the performance of existing boxes. We considered the need for growth. We pored over complex vendor spreadsheets to determine which servers and apps could be consolidated. We left nothing to guesswork.
As I write this, we are still working on our consolidation plan. No matter what you may read, an initiative like this is not as straightforward as it seems. It involves a high level of complexity and extremely detailed planning. Don't get me wrong--we can't keep adding a pizza box server here and there forever. But server consolidation takes time. And smart IT people know enough to take that time--or risk making a big mistake.
Hunter Metatek is an enterprise IT director with 15 years' experience in network engineering and management. The events chronicled in this column are based in fact--only the names are fiction. Write to the author at [email protected].
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