53962071 tt 11 055 dellintel reduce custom smb whitepaper

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2011 Dell and Intel

6 Ways to Reduce IT Expendituresin the Next 3 Years

Contents

Introduction 1

ITBudgetsareGettingSmaller 2

SixWaystoTrimITBudgetsOverTime 2

ChoosingandDeployingtheBestCost-savingTechnologies 6

Conclusion 8

Introduction

IT budgets that were reduced or remained flat in 2010 are set to rebound, a bit, in 2011. Thatmeans that IT managers are able to refocus on technology investments theyve wanted to make.However, conservative spending directives remain firmly in place. IT has to find a way to save

money over time to support new investment and continual improvements. This paper outlines sixways to reduce IT expenditures. They are linked by their relationship to virtualization, a technologythat a majority of companies have begun to implement, but that offers further pay back. Howeach investment will impact IT budgets will vary from company to company so IT managers andexecutives need to carefully weigh their costs and benefits. Dell, through its relationships withIntel, VMware, Microsoft, and other leading technology developers is well-positioned to helpIT departments identify investments that support business goals and save IT dollars.

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2 2011 Dell and Intel

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ITBudgetsareGettingSmaller

IT will remember 2010 as the year budgets did something theyve never done before trendeddown. Of course, not every company reduced its IT budget. Some budgets remained flat. 2011is hardly the days of wine and roses, but a survey by a TechTarget IT Profiles survey showsthat many companies are returning to investment mode. In fact, 32% of the IT shops surveyedreported that their budgets will grow by 5% this year.

Even as IT managers inside SMBs eye new investments, the directive to save money, wheneverpossible, remains firmly in place. Initiatives that can show positive return on investment in theshortest time frame are making their way back to the front burner.

What are those budget-friendly IT initiatives? This paper considers six strategic technologyinvestments that position SMBs for ongoing cost savings. The list isnt comprehensive thereare many more ways to save money in IT. Neither is the list prescriptive. IT managers are alwaysresponsible to justify their investments and implementations in the context of business plansand goals.

There is a general theme that runs through these cost-saving strategies. Virtualization. Compa-nies that are moving through virtualization in the datacenter with servers and storage and thenout to the end-user community with virtual desktops and private clouds will not only transformtheir IT infrastructures, but also their budgets.

SixWaystoTrimItBudgetsOverTime

Many companies have already begun to move from traditional to virtual infrastructures. In thefourth quarter of 2009, 18% of all new servers were virtualized (IDC press release, April 28,2010, Virtualization Market Accelerates Out of the Recession as Users Adopt Virtualize First

Mentality). The move toward virtual servers, and then storage and desktops, has been drivenby corporate directives to trim IT budgets. A CDW survey, CDW Server Virtualization Live CycleReport: Medium and Large Businesses (January 11, 2010), reports that 78% of 387 companiessurveyed gave their IT managers an A for virtualization implementations that had successfullysaved money and increased IT productivity.

If companies have not begun to deploy virtual servers and desktops, those are both greatways to reduce IT costs over the next several years. Assuming that virtualization is in placeor underway, the list below suggests ways to move beyond those initial savings by leveragingvirtualization investments.

PrivateClouds

Commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by 7th Sense Research, an October 2010 survey of2,000 IT decision makers found that 26% of small companies (less than 250 employees) and 48%in large companies (250 employees or more) agreed they need to shift to cloud based solutionsin 2011. Cloud based solutions is a broad category that can include public, private, or hybridclouds. Given the risks associated with public clouds, many SMBs are looking to private cloudsas a means of facilitating provisioning, increasing agility, and saving money.


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The first big private cloud-related savings are realized through the virtualization of servers thatdeliver applications, data, services, and even entire work environments in the cloud. By con-solidating traditional servers companies immediately save on power, cooling, and floor space.

Savings extend to IT overhead that includes a reduced number of servers to upgrade, secure,backup, and maintain.

Private clouds deliver applications, operating systems, and data from the datacenter relievingend-user devices from heavy system requirements. Using thin clients, end-users log into per-sonalized work environments or application sets that are maintained on virtual servers. IT gainsmuch more control over platoons of end-user devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tabletsby focusing management efforts on datacenter servers and storage systems. Standardized workenvironments further increase control and decrease overhead. Help desk calls are also reducedas end-user issues can be proactively handled inside the datacenter.

IT gains tremendous flexibility with private clouds. Resources such as disk space, CPU, RAM, etc.,can be reallocated in minutes to support shifts in processing requirements. Processing loadsare balanced across virtual servers to fully use available capacity which is much more cost-efficient than deploying application-specific servers that often use no more than 20% of theirprocessing power.

Chargeback capabilities help IT track departmental use of private cloud services and even createinternal billing. That doesnt decrease costs to the organization, but by making IT a true serviceprovider through internal charges for the private cloud encourages management throughout thecompany to fully assess service and help IT justify and prioritize new investments.

StorageVirtualization

As companies grow and virtual servers increase in number and more and more people accessdata and applications, I/O bottlenecks become a problem. One way to address the ever-increasingneed for data storage is to continually buy storage devices. Its a simple strategy, but hardly costeffective. The price of storage continues to rise, as do associated costs such as IT managementoverhead, power consumption, cooling, and floor space. Like servers, storage can be consolidatedthrough virtualization. Costs are reigned in and performance is increased.

Dedicated storage is typically purchased and deployed in anticipation of future growth, whichmeans that datacenters can be filled with unused storage. Storage virtualization allows diskresources to be pooled and dynamically provisioned when needed instead of tied to a specificapplication or service. Utilization of storage resources is optimized.

ITs ability to streamline storage management by consistently applying backup, data protection,disaster recovery, maintenance and other procedures across the storage pool saves a lot of time.

It also saves money as IT effort is decreased and management gaps are reduced.

DisasterRecovery/businessContinuity

IT management tools are giving technicians greater visibility into server performance. Rather thanwaiting for servers to slow to a crawl or completely fail, IT staff can proactively tune servers thatare exhibiting performance issues.


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By keeping servers up and running, IT helps preserve end-user productivity levels. Of course, ifservers have to be taken off line in order to accomplish maintenance tasks, productivity is lost.Scheduling maintenance for evening hours or weekends preserves end-user productivity, but

increases IT overtime costs.

The price of service outages can easily justify investment in a storage area network (SAN) thatsconnected to a private cloud. IT is able to shift virtual servers to other physical servers in thecloud whenever off-line maintenance is required. End-users retain full access to applications,operating systems, data, and services. Maintenance can happen during regular work hours;IT does not have to announce or plan for a service outage or incur overtime costs.

BusinessIntelligence/analytics/dataWarehousing

Heres a sobering Gartner prediction: through 2012, more than 35% of the top 5,000 globalcompanies will fail to make insightful decisions about significant changes in their businessesand markets. One explanation is that companies arent attempting to find and implement

go-ahead strategies. Another is that the complexities of efficiently analyzing huge amountsof internal and external business data makes god-ahead strategies hard to find.

IT often plays a huge role in business analysis by searching for the corporate data business ana-lysts requirements and then creating reports that help the analysts use the data. That forces ITto take on the job of business analysis. Not only does increasing ITs already overloaded task listwith data-mining and report writing cost money, but it also gets in the way of efficient analyses.

Self-service business platforms like Microsofts Business Intelligence Platform that includesMicrosoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, and SQL Server 2008 R2 return the job of businessanalysis to the hands of trained business analysts. These trained professionals use familiarapplications, advanced search, and collaboration tools to conduct and present analyses.IT focuses on maintaining and delivering the platform. Self-service business analysis createsa strategic resource without adding significantly to IT staff costs.

BackupandDataProtectionforVirtualServers

IT managers in both traditional and virtual environments are on the hook to backup and protectdata so that it is available for recovery and allows companies to comply with data retentionpolicies and regulations. Its a big responsibility that keeps getting bigger as corporate databasesgrow. In traditional and virtual environments the backup and data protection challenge centerson getting the job done without negatively impacting performance or reliability, or significantlyincreasing costs.

Backup is typically accomplished with solutions that require an agent to be installed on everyvirtual (or physical) server. Its a straightforward solution with two downsides. First, theresa performance hit when backup processes are running. Second, as virtual servers proliferate,IT has a lot of agents to track and manage.

Hypervisors including Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESX allow agents to be installed on thevirtual host or physical server. That greatly reduces the number of agents in the datacenter butvirtual servers have to be shut down in order for the agent to run, which can interrupt service.


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Solutions like vStorage from VMware perform backup at the image, block or file level. Backupprocesses run continuously without impacting performance. Data restoration is also faster, morecomplete, and less labor intensive. With an increased number of restoration points, IT technicians

grab data that was backed up just minutes before a server failed. At most, the restored datamight be missing a few changes. Thats in contrast to losing half a days worth of data becausethe last backup was run twelve hours ago.

Poor server performance and lost data negatively impacts productivity; hours of IT time spenton backup processing or data restoration is an overhead burden, especially when it leadsto overtime. Improvements in backup and data protection for virtual servers yields cost savingsby both preserving performance and reducing IT overhead.

Windows7migrationviadesktopvirtualization

Desktop virtualization is saving companies money by moving processing requirements offend-user devices and into the datacenter. Rather than accessing applications and data that

are stored on their own hard drives, end-users can log into servers from their desktop, laptop,or mobile device and start using a work environment that has been tailored to them and theirwork responsibilities. As is the case with server and storage virtualization, IT gains control,lowers administrative overhead, improves service, and reduces costs.

Now that SMBs have reached a decision point about migration to Microsoft Windows 7, desktopvirtualization is set to deliver even greater cost efficiencies. Microsoft has announced thatsupport for Windows XP will end in 2014. That seems like a long way off but with WindowsXP providing the operating platform for entire employee populations, planning for migrationto its successor, Windows 7, is beginning now.

Cost is a huge concern with any migration. Gartner estimates that the cost of a Windows 7migration in a traditional (non-virtualized) environment is $1,274 $2,069 per PC. Those figuresinclude the price of the upgrade licenses as well as hardware upgrades, or in some cases,PC replacements. (Window 7 requires a PC with a 1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)processor, I GB 32-bit RAM or 2 GB 64-bit RAM, 16 GB hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit),and a Direc7X 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 of higher driver.) Virtual desktops can be muchthinner, have a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of disk space, and 1 GB of flash memory, for example,and still allow end-users access to their applications.

Of course, thin clients are not appropriate for all end-users. Performance issues linked to networklatency or inability to run certain applications in virtual environments preclude programmers,designers, analysts, and others from relying solely on datacenter-delivered resources. Part ofthe migration planning process has to include careful consideration of where thin clients can beeffectively deployed and where more capable machines will deliver the performance, processingcapabilities, and functionality required.

The combined cost-effect of lower hardware requirements, reduced (or eliminated) softwareconflicts, and easier deployment can bring the cost of a Windows 7 migration down to $100/PCin a virtual environment (according to Gartner). For companies that havent implemented desktopvirtualization, significance of that savings could justify the move.


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Its important to note that not all users can be productive with a thin client. Performance issueslinked to network latency preclude some end-users programmers, designers, analysts from using thin clients.

ChoosingandDeployingtheBestCost-SavingTechnologies

A theme runs through the cost-saving ideas listed above virtualization. Virtualization ofservers, storage, and desktops is often inspired by the need to control IT costs now and intothe future. Many companies have made a foray into virtualization by deploying at least a handfulof virtual servers, but enhancing virtual environments through private clouds or storage virtu-alization, not only increases the return on investment but offers companies greater IT resourceflexibility and streamlined IT management.

Its not hard for IT managers to understand how virtualization will help their companies manageexpenses. Figuring out how to start, how to apply current hardware resources to the creationof a virtual environment, how to select new investments with the biggest pay-offs, and how

to implement those investments in the least disruptive manner, is a challenge.

Over-subscribed IT managers inside SMBs are deriving great value from their single-vendorrelationship with Dell. Through partnerships with leading virtualization developers includingIntel, Microsoft, and VMware, Dell provides consulting and implementation services along witha broad portfolio of hardware and software that can be configured to meet the business andbudget goals of any SMB.

DellServices

Dell consultants work closely with IT managers and staff to identify, specify, and configure newinvestments that will increase performance and reliability while setting the company up for ITsavings. They understand how to supplement current server and storage capacity, fully utilize

virtual servers and maximize consolidation, and what particular server and storage combinationswill deliver the performance required.

Dell also provides expertise and guidance in private cloud implementations. Desktop, laptop,and mobile device options also give IT managers access to end-user devices that will leverageprivate clouds and support any model of desktop virtualization deployed.

Configured and tested at Dell, servers, storage devices, and end-user computers are packaged forout-of-the box implementation. Dell consultants provide continued support on-site or via telephone.

DellServerswithIntelProcessors

Virtualization aims the spotlight at the datacenter, which delivers the applications, data,

operating systems and processing power that drive the entire infrastructure. High-performance,high-availability virtual servers are the secret to success. Dells family of PowerEdge servers,available in tower, rack, and blade models, are designed to support virtualization. Configuredto support current requirements, all servers scale easily to support growth.

Performance is assured by Intel Xeon processors 5600 series that offer 6.36 times better perfor-mance per watt than single core processors. Even intense data retrieval or graphics creation and


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manipulation processes run fast. Intel Xeon processors 5600 series further boost performanceand savings through:

IntelTurboBoostTechnology Server performance is automatically maximizedby increasing core frequencies, which enables faster speeds for either specific threadsor very heavy workloads.

IntelIntelligentPowerTechnologyThe processor and memory dont always needthe same amount of power. Intel Intelligent Power Technology automatically shifts bothCPU and memory to the lowest power state that still delivers the performance required.That not only saves on energy used to run the server but also reduces the heat output,which in turn, reduces cooling requirements.

Given the energy, power, and cooling costs of data centers, all increases in workload and capacityshould be tempered with energy efficiency; a strong suit of Intel Xeon processors 5600 series.Power consumption is scaled to workload. Even if servers are left on to accommodate around

the clock workers and off-hours processing, less energy will be used at off-peak periods. Thatadds power savings benefits above those gained through server virtualization and consolidation.Additional energy savings is gained through:

Automatedenergyefficiency Idling cores (those that are not needed to supportcurrent workloads) are powered down to near zero consumption independently of workingcores to reduce overall power consumption.

Automatedlow-powerstates Processor, memory, and I/O controllers are automaticallyreduced to the power state that will support performance needed by the current workload.

Redundant components no single points of failure make Dell PowerEdge servers highlyreliable. Should a fan, power supply, or other component fail, its backup unit will take over untilthe broken primary unit is replaced. On top of being redundant, components are hot pluggable;they can be removed and replaced while the server is up and running. Reliability is also assuredwith dual internal SD (Secure Digital) modules for storing virtualization hypervisors. End-usersdo not lose access to applications when fixes are being made. Redundancy and hot pluggabilitycreate a safety net that protects access to the critical line of business applications.

DellEqualLogicStorage

Dell EqualLogic and PowerVault storage series are both used to create high-performance iSCSIstorage area networks (SANs) inside an SMBs virtualized data center. All devices assumegrowth and can scale out performance and capacity. SMBs purchase only the storage they needknowing that expansion can easily happen at any time. This prevents over purchasing and under-utilization. Configured with solutions from Microsoft, VMware or other third party developers,

Dell SANs also offers the cost benefits of continuous backup, streamlined disaster recovery,and data compression.

Like PowerEdge Servers, EqualLogic storage devices have redundant, hot-swappable components(fans, power supplies, disk drives with hot spares). Those features along with a fault-tolerant, re-dundant controller and enterprise-class RAID protection enable devices to offer 99.999% availability.


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DellDesktopsandLaptops

The trend toward mobility is requiring more and more employees to work with a laptop. Mobileworkers favor devices that are lighter (in weight) and virtualization allows devices that are

outfitted with smaller hard drives and less memory. Dells catalog of netbooks, Latitude laptops,and smartphones (Dell Venue Pro, Dell Streak) and Android-based pocket tablets allow ITdepartments to provision end-users with the tools they need to get their work done withoutover-investing in power.

Conclusion

While IT budgets are projected to increase a bit over 2010, its important to note that theyactually dipped in 2010. The increase is welcome, but not overwhelming. IT managers are stillpressed to save money. SMBs are looking for ways to tightly manage budgets over time. Thispaper considers six ways SMBs can trim IT costs: private clouds, storage virtualization, disasterrecovery, business intelligence, backup and data protection, and Windows 7 migration via virtu-

alization. Choosing between those cost saving methods can be difficult. Through its partnershipswith leading virtualization developers including Intel, Microsoft, and VMware, Dell is able toprovide a single vendor relationship for exploring virtualization options, specifying and sourcinginfrastructure components, and simplifying implementation.

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