Making Hard Decisions Easy

Can anyone deny that servers in enterprise networks are critical, and they
form the backbone of the enterprise IT infrastructure.

Various parameters like cooling capacity, performance per watt,
interoperability, RoI vis-a-vis a particular server technology are kept in mind
while making the buying decision, as they are the ones that ensure productivity
of any organization. Naturally, CIOs of enterprises have become very choosy in
deciding servers for their enterprise's IT set up. Any investment on servers
should be based on ramping up the back-end IT infrastructure that can scaled up
according to the new requirements of the enterprise. Apart from these
parameters, affordable price forms an integral part.

The telecom vertical is a major consumer of different server technologies,
and demand is increasing day by day as SPs provide a range of value added
services and carry a whole range of activities in OSS and BSS. Server vendors
also come out with carrier grade server solutions to meet the increasing demand
in server performance.

Server purchase decisions are either postponed or canceled as the market
witnesses a slump. IDC forecasts that the market will see eight quarters of
y-o-y revenue declines. The directive of every organization has now been changed
to 'do more with less' as a result of the recession. So CIOs are forced to
choose a solution that can do more with less investment.

Key Technology Trends

These troubled times in a way enhanced the need for virtualization.
Virtualization has shown companies the effects and benefits that could be
achieved in terms of cost cutting by turning to this technology.

Many companies have turned to virtualization technologies for their servers
and their data centers to simplify administration and to reduce management
chores and operating costs, while maintaining reliability and safeguarding
against disasters. Seeing the significant benefits virtualization delivers in
those environments, companies are now looking to apply the same technology to
their desktop computers.

Today, an increasing number of organizations have global aspirations. At the
same time, they know they have to be nimble to garner competitive advantage
because of the economic weather. According to VMware, an automated data center
built on a virtualization platform lets enterprises respond to market dynamics
faster and more efficiently than ever before.

The back-end enterprises, data centers, and banks prefer servers that have
the capability to run multiple applications within a single system. Today
enterprises are looking at consolidating all of their applications into a single
server that has the capability of partitioning; running multiple operating
systems; running processors of different generations, frequencies, and
architectures.

Virtual Clients

Virtual client solutions have advantages on data security, system
manageability and TCO reduction over PC environment. The next generation VPCC
Thin-Client system saves up to 62% system power consumption compared with normal
PCs. It uses server based computing where the data is secure and protected on
the server side and not exposed to misuse, theft, hacking-typical case in a PC
scenario where data resides on the local disk of a PC.

Organizations have realized that acquiring desktop, software installation,
software upgradation in addition to maintaining these systems is a costly and
time-consuming business, and hence are shifting towards desktop virtualization.
It's only been a few years since virtualization has become feasible for servers,
but server virtualization is a hot topic in the world of information technology.

Rack systems will increasingly become part of any standard data center of
enterprises. The blade server and appliance server have good growth potential in
India in the SMB market place. A blade server houses multiple thin, modular
electronic circuit boards/server blades which are often dedicated to a single
application. As blade servers are designed to occupy less space, cabling is also
simplified. Blade servers provide more processing power with less power
consumption. With blade servers, enterprises can experience as much as 85%
reduction in cabling compared to the conventional 1U or tower servers. It also
helps IT administrators save a lot of time on managing the infrastructure.

Serving the Green Cause

Another important aspect is the energy saving solution in server
technologies. Energy savings are achieved in server, storage and other hardware
by incorporating virtual infrastructure and adopting energy-saving components
such as CPU, memory and disk units. Reducing the initial costs and power
consumption leads to an increase in the overall RoI.

So green IT is an important agenda on every CIOs/CTOs list and various
measures are being adopted towards it. As power and space saving technologies
assume lot of importance owing to their cost saving benefits, server vendors
will also offer power saving technologies for enterprises. These technologies
provide optimum technology solutions for storage and backup, clustering,
security, and virtualization. NEC's energy saving server, Eco Center leverages
specially designed rack mounted hardware that combines advances in power
efficiency, virtualization technology, and platform management capabilities to
optimize power consumption.

Every organization has to assure a unique mix of server purchase requirements
that include high performance, reliability, technology, equipment, etc, while
working within constraints such as budget, floor space, power/thermal capacity
and so on. Servers need to fit the application's requirements as well as the
data center deployment strategy. Whether it is a SME or a large enterprise, CIOs
should not go by marketing gimmicks for purchasing server solutions. Basically
the solutions should be able to simplify operations, maximize the IT resources,
integrate with other existing servers, and be cost effective too.

For CIOs, it is important that their enterprises are energy efficient and
there is provision for expansion and scalability. Customers have a lot of data
of different types, and the bulk of the information is stored on Microsoft
Window servers or Linux/Unix/Proprietary hardware. It is critical to analyze the
type of data before selecting the storage. e Windows Storage Server often
provides the fastest performance for the dollars spent with the lowest
acquisition cost as well as the lowest TCO for standard files that could include
office documents, images, videos etc.

Specialized applications like databases, messaging (exchange) need higher
performance block storage. A good storage solution leverages both the
technologies to provide optimized storage for both 'file data' as well as 'block
data'.

Additionally, CIOs need to consider proven IT usage models such as
virtualization/consolidation, dense computing and technical computing, etc. When
choosing a suitable hardware, it is worth considering which applications would
the hardware be supporting—simple or complex. For instance, choosing a suitable
processor will get the job done and may outperform the other processor depending
on the applications.

BFSI, manufacturing, IT& ITeS, and the government are the main sectors
driving the server market. Going forward, the government sector which has been
least impacted by the economic slowdown is witnessing project based activities.
Another strong vertical could be the retail sector for fueling the growth of the
server technology demands.

Kannan K

kannan@cybermedia.co.in