ebook top 5 it budget killers

8/14/2019 eBook Top 5 IT Budget Killers

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IT B t KiTh T

( h f ht b k)


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Contents

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STorageexpanSIon HardwareSprawl relIaBIlITy andScalaBIlITy complIanceSySTemcomplexITy

St e siSmart moves to makeas data volumes growand access demandsincrease S st c it

How to cut through thetangle o data centermanagement and

ocus on what reallymatters

c iMake sure the priceo vigilance isnt morethan you can bear

1

3

H SWhen it comes toserver boxes, more isnot necessarily better

4r i bi it S bi itBuilding lean, smart ITsystems that keep yourbusiness always on andalways growing

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Youve heard it a million times: Do more with less. It may be good business, but asbudgets shrink and IT demands grow, you may start to wonder i the people who are

saying do more with less think that its a magical incantation. Run the servers without

electricity! Wave a wand so your data center takes care o itsel ! While were at it, lets conjure

up some rabbits and train them to install security patches.

Youve already taken basic cost-cutting steps and saved the easy money. You know that you

need to dig deeper. But where should you start? Whats killing your IT budget?

The good news is that youre probably already staring right at the problemits just a matter

o knowing what youre seeing and understanding what to do about it. Many o the largest IT

budget problems can be traced back to ve big money drains:

1. Storage expansion

2 . System complexity 3. Hardware sprawl

4. Reliability and scalability

5. Compliance

3Intro

STorageexpanSIonconTenTS HardwareSprawl relIaBIlITy andScalaBIlITy complIanceSySTemcomplexITy reSourceS


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Intro

I you think that you already have these bases covered, you might want to think again and

ask yoursel ve questions. How e cient is the storage that youre using to support your

exponentially expanding databases? How much overtime is your database administrator

(DBA) sta putting into managing servers and storage? How much are you spending on all

that hardware in your data centers? Whats the cost o the measures you put in place to make

sure that your systems are available 24x7 and can grow with the business? And nally, how

much are you spending on regulatory compliance?

I any o this sounds amiliar, youre not alone. This e-book, provided by IBM, will introduce you to

the ve big IT budget killersand some o the best ways to knock them out.

STorageexpanSIonconTenTS HardwareSprawl relIaBIlITy andScalaBIlITy complIanceSySTemcomplexITy reSourceS

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IT B t e #1: St e siWe cant say that Gordon Moore didnt warn us. The idea that transistor density would double

every two years was an alarm bell. A ter all, more transistors mean more in ormation, which

means more data. Still, even he couldnt have anticipated the tra c that has clogged data

centers since the Internet became the central conduit o business. Analysts now estimate that

the volume o business e-mail is growing by 2530 percent each year, and by 2010, the worlds

in ormation base will double in size every 11 hours.1

IT departments are already stretching their budgets or storage, and the demand is only going

to grow. The volume o data an average business collects and stores actually doubles every

18-24 months. That 70TB database youre juggling now could easily top a petabyte (thats a

thousand terabytes) within six years.

To complicate the situation urther, a lot o data cant be thrown away. It must be care ully

managed rom creation through disposal, to meet increasingly strict compliance regulations.

At the same time, IT departments are under pressure to deliver rapid data accessregardless

o where the in ormation resides.

STorageexpanSIon HardwareSprawl relIaBIlITy andScalaBIlITy complIanceSySTemcomplexITyconTenTS

Storage 1

Consolidate databases

Free up high-value

storage space

Embrace data

compression

Automate data archiving

SUMMARY

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Fighting this IT budget killer calls or shrewd tactics. You cant just build bigger bucketsyouneed to nd smarter ways to store that data. Four key strategies can help you win the battle

against runaway data storage costs:

1. Consolidate databases to make administration simpler. Eliminate redundant data rom

multiple sources to reduce the amount o storage needed and the e ort required to

manage the data.

2. Compress your data. Compression allows you to use ewer bits to encode in ormation.

Depending on the approach you take, you can probably squeeze 4080 percent more

data onto existing storage media. 2

3. Archive data to ree up high-value storage space and keep databases running

smoothly. Once your databases are running lean and trim, keep them that way by

archiving noncritical data o high-value assets and onto less-expensive media.

Archiving not only helps keep databases running e ciently, it can also trim the number

o physical devices in your data centerand saves your best equipment or critical

production databases.

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6 Storage 1


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Archiving can also help you improve storage asset utilization; identi y opportunities toreclaim and consolidate storage; and reduce operational and management costs by

using ewer disparate devices and so tware tools.

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 20100

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

1,000,000

P e t a b y t e s

Information

Available storage

Forrester estimates that,on average, structured data repositories or large applications grow by 50 percent annually.


7 Storage 1

Source: Forrester Research


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IT B t e #2: S st c itThe data center has never required so much time and attention as it does todaybut who has the

budget to support new sta ? Instead, more and more work gets assigned to the DBAs who are

around, which leads to those much-loved, 3 a . m . get-in-here-and- x-this-server-or-else alerts on

your BlackBerry. Since when did do more with less come to mean do more with less sleep?

A big part o the problem is that data centers have become so complex that administrators cant

be as productive as they have been in the past. Forrester Research estimates that 75 percent

o companies have three or more enterprise database management system (DBMS) products in

their environment. 3 This patchwork o solutions only serves to make the environment more time-

consuming to manage.

According to a January 2008 survey o Canadian IT workers conducted by The Strategic Counsel,

many DBAs already devote up to 80 percent o their time to routine systems maintenance. 4 Add

to that the work that needs to get done on strategic projects, and you may be looking at major

overtime charges. And i anything alls through the cracks, hourly downtime costs can top

US$1 million or more or technology-dependent companies, according to analyst estimates.

Complexity

Simpli y management

Automate basic

administration

Outsource mundane

admin tasks

SUMMARY


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The key to combating complexity is to consolidate your systems as much as possible and

automate as many basic processes as you can. By doing that, youll reduce the amount o basic

maintenance work and give your DBAs more time to ocus on strategic (and more interesting)

projects. Here are three starting points:

1. Simpli y management. According to Forrester Research, enterprises should operate

two enterprise DBMS products at most. 5 This approach helps to cut costs by reducing

administration e orts and by consolidating new database license purchases by obtaining

higher discounts. Companies can typically save a minimum o 30 percent through DBMS

standardization and 10 percent or more by reducing administration e orts.

2. Automate basic database administration unctions. Automate everything you can. Youll

help minimize errors and cut costs, and your sta will spend less time on repetitive drudgery.

3 . Outsource routine activities to give in-house DBAs more time or new projects.

I you have more than 10 DBAs, consider outsourcing routine administration activities likemonitoring and backup managementa ter conducting a care ul return on investment (ROI)

study, o course. Forrester Research estimates that enterprises can save 15 percent or more

by outsourcing database administration, depending on the number o databases, DBAs,

servers and applications. 6

Complexity

Since when did do more withless come tomean do morewith less sleep?


9Complexity


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IT B t e #3: H SThe next IT budget killer isnt hard to ndjust open the door to your data center and look

around. Do you see a room ull o servers, each supporting one or two applications? Small,

cheap servers may help curb IT spending in the short term, but it isnt always the most

cost-e ective long-term choice. Dont eel bad. Server sprawl happens to the best o us.

Server sprawl is especially deadly to IT budgets. More systems usually mean more complexity

and maintenance (see Budget Enemy #2 or how that story turns out), and more servers

de nitely mean more power and cooling costs. For most companies, data center hardware

accounts or the bulk o the power and cooling bill. In some cases, power costs can even

exceed the cost o IT equipment!

Virtualize to reduce the

amount o hardware in

your space

Consolidate to stu more

data into your space

Replace systems with

energy-e fcient hardware

to cut energy costs in

your space

SUMMARY


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Hardware 3


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Tackling server sprawl can be a big job, but lets start with the basics. Start by thinking about

how to pair applications with the hardware that can best support their particular needs. As a

general rule, leverage the most e cient plat orms rst. Heres a quick guide to ollow when

dealing with budget-killing hardware:

1. Virtualize. Virtualization is a good strategy or reducing the number o physical servers

in the data center while dramatically increasing computing capacity. Virtualized servers

provide more e cient space utilization and more e ective energy consumption than

stand-alone servers. Need more reasons? Then think about this: Virtualization is a good

way to add redundancy and prepare or disaster recovery.


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Dont feel bad. Server sprawl happens to the best of us.

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2. I you cant virtualize, consolidate. Consider hosting the application on a blade server.

Consolidating on denser equipment may o er the highest ROI o any IT in rastructure

initiative: You get reduced maintenance, foor space and power consumption while

reducing data center complexity (which has the nice side e ect o lower management

costs), improving responsiveness, enhancing resiliency and shortening the time todeploy new servers.

3. I you cant virtualize or consolidate, replace. I neither o these plat orms work, choose

the most space- and energy-e cient individual servers available. Replacing legacy servers

with higher-per ormance, higher-capacity systems designed with e cient thermal charac-

teristics and power delivery can be an e ective way to cut power consumption and costs.

Hardware 3


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IT B t e #4: r i bi it S bi itBusinesses today cant operate without in ormationeven or a second. And because most

enterprise in ormation is contained within IT systems, it is absolutely critical that those systems

be available whenever your employees or your customers need them. Now youre talking about

24x7 availability, meaning that your systems have to scale along with your workloads. But

scaling out by adding servers raises hardware and maintenance costs, and the wrong storage

con guration can cause major delays in delivering key in ormation.

Luckily, several o the same strategies that help combat storage, complexity and hardware costs

can also help you ght this IT budget killer:

1. Compress and archive in requently accessed data. Moving little-used data to slower,

less costly media boosts network per ormance or the data that employees and customers

need to access requentlyand ast. Compression helps minimize the storage space

required, which plays a part in maintaining scalability.

Reliability

Compress and archive

little-used data

Consolidate and

virtualize to boost

resiliency

Cluster systems to

preserve high availability

Centralize administration

Integrate and manage

your data

SUMMARY


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Reliability

2. Consolidate and virtualize. In some cases, simpli ying the in rastructure makes business

resiliency options more a ordable by reducing the number o licenses required. Server

and storage virtualization management tools can practically eliminate planned and

unplanned downtime. Work also can be shi ted to other physical devices so that

maintenance can be per ormed without disrupting operations.

3. Use clustered confgurations to sa eguard high availability. I it doesnt make senseto consolidate your applications onto a smaller number o large servers, using clusters o

rack-dense blade servers can o er system redundancy and ailover in the case o ailures

or per ormance degradation. Clustered servers can be con gured to automatically restart

a troubled application on designated backup hardware to protect high availability.

Low-cost blade servers can also be used to easily scale out as transaction volumes grow,

ully utilizing investments in disaster recovery hardware.

4. Centralize administration unctions. Streamlining routine administrative tasks through

centralized automation and control allows your IT sta to ocus on supporting the business

instead o babysitting equipment.


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Reliability

5. Establish strong in ormation management policies. Because practically everybusiness system depends on real-time in ormation, it is critical that your plat orms allow

you to search or, organize and trans orm structured, unstructured and semistructured

data throughout the organization. Getting the right in ormation to the right people or

processes at the right time can be processing-intensivewhich is why you need to

explore a solid in ormation integration plat orm.

Database-as-a-service

Outsourcing

Database compression

Database virtualization

Database archiving

Open-source databases

Automation

Low-cost servers

Database standardization

Database consolidation

Level of difficulty and cost savings

'

For existing applications and databases

Easy Difficult Savings

> 20%

> 30%

> 25%

> 10%

> 25%

> 20%

> 25%

> 10%

> 15%

> 10%

By balancing the level o di fculty and cost savings,you can combine several relatively easy tasks to garner big benefts.

Source: Forrester Research


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IT B t e #5: c iCompanies spend big bucks to maintain compliance plat orms that are designed to help them

stay on the right side o the lawand or good reason. Organizations ace large nes i they are

ound to be out o compliance, and bad press and security breaches can dissolve shareholder

con dence, destroy customer trust and send stock prices plummeting almost overnight.

Its these potentially apocalyptic consequences o a breach that make compliance such a budget

killer. Companies are erring on the side o caution, saving every e-mail and every version o every

document, creating a mountain o in ormation to manage, track and search. The key to winning

the battle: setting up automated, policy-based systems to make sure youre storing and indexing

important in ormation like e-mails about executive stock purchasesbut also that youre getting rid

o anything thats irrelevant to the business, like the vacation pictures you e-mailed to your sister.

Compliance 5Uphold strong data

governance policies

Clean those databases

Streamline records

management

Centralize security

management

SUMMARY

Its these potentially apocalyptic consequences of abreach that make compliance such a budget killer.


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To combat the cost o compliance, you have a variety o options:

1. Put strong data governance policies in place. Governance, risk and compliance

unctions can help you achieve compliance with operational policies; cost-e ectively

sustain compliance with automated processes, active controls and risk management;

and prove compliance by producing evidence and records o adherence upon request.

2. Use electronic discovery technology to cleanse your databases. These tools can

help you scrub the redundant and unnecessary data out o your digital archives; build

content inventories; enable content collection, preservation and legal holds; improve the

discovery review process; and automate or audit legal discovery processes.

3. Streamline records management. With a well-cra ted records management policy

(including as much automation as possible, o course), you can control electronic records

across the enterprise, manage electronic and advanced physical records together and

eliminate the costs and risks o managing paper records. Another bene t: ewer paper cuts.

4. Centralize security policy management. Storing security data rom throughout your

in rastructure in one location can help improve both security operations and in ormation

risk management.


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T k t IT b tSo now you know exactly whats killing your IT budget and its time to apply the cures. With

limited resources, where do you start?

Your rst step should be to take an inventory o your data assets, hardware, so tware and

administration sta . This baseline will help you identi y the lowest-cost, highest-impact areas

where you can make a dent in the bottom line.

Stay ocused as your projects get underway. Concentrate on one or two initiatives at a time to

make sure you get maximum value out o your e orts.

Use a broad, balanced approach that takes both data centers and applications into account and

aims to save money in several ways at once. Your IT budget enemies have many acesyour

de ense against them should too.

Finally, revisit the initiatives periodically to measure results and make adjustments. Combating IT

budget killers is an ongoing job.

Good luck!

STorageexpanSIon HardwareSprawl relIaBIlITy andScalaBIlITy complIanceSySTemcomplexITyconTenTS

Resources

Stay focused as your projects

get underway.Concentrateon one or twoinitiatives ata time to makesure you getmaximumvalue out of

your efforts.

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Learn more about how you can ght IT budget killers. Get additional in ormation about

saving costs in the data center by visiting ibm.com /so tware/data/ITBudgetKillers

or exploring these resources:

White paper: The Business Benefts o DB2 9 (Bloor Research)

White paper: IBMs secret weapon: In ormix Dynamic Server (IDC)

ROI tool: IBM DB2 Compression

ROI tool: IBM In ormix Dynamic Server


19Resources
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/ITBudgetKillershttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/ITBudgetKillershttp://www.ibm.com/software/sw-library/en_US/detail/T235242U62138O66.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/sw-library/en_US/detail/T235242U62138O66.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/idc-ids.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/ids-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/ids-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/ids-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/ids-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/db2-compression-roi-tool.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/information/idc-ids.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/sw-library/en_US/detail/T235242U62138O66.htmlhttp://www.ibm.com/software/data/ITBudgetKillers


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Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

IBM So tware GroupRoute 100Somers, NY 10589

Produced in the United States o AmericaJuly 2008All Rights Reserved

1 The toxic terabyte: How data-dumping threatens business e ciency. IBM Global Technology Services. July 2006. ibm.com /systems/storage/solutions/pd /toxic_tb.pd2 Row compression in DB2 9. October 5, 2006. ibm.com /developerworks/db2/library/long/dm-0610chang/3 Top Ten Ways To Reduce Your Enterprise Database Cost. Forrester Research telecon erence and presentation. May 27, 2008.

www. orrester.com/rb/telecon erence/top_ten_ways_to_reduce_enterprise_database/q/id/2336/t/14 Survey sheds light on IT skills shortage. Ottawa Business Journal. February 27, 2008. www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/298363398256407.php5 Top Ten Ways To Reduce Your Enterprise Database Cost. Forrester Research telecon erence and presentation. May 27, 2008.6 Top Ten Ways To Reduce Your Enterprise Database Cost. Forrester Research telecon erence and presentation. May 27, 2008.

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com , DB2 and In ormix are trademarks or registered trademarks o International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. I these and other IBM trade-marked terms are marked on their rst occurrence in this in ormation with a trademark symbol ( or ), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this in ormation waspublished. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list o IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark in ormation at ibm.com /legal/copytrade.shtml

Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks o others.

Re erences in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. O erings are subject to change, extension or withdrawalwithout notice.

All statements regarding IBM uture direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.
http://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/solutions/pdf/toxic_tb.pdfhttp://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/solutions/pdf/toxic_tb.pdfhttp://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/long/dm-0610chang/http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/long/dm-0610chang/http://www.forrester.com/rb/teleconference/top_ten_ways_to_reduce_enterprise_database/q/id/2336/t/1http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/298363398256407.phphttp://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtmlhttp://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtmlhttp://www.ibm.com/us/http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtmlhttp://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/298363398256407.phphttp://www.forrester.com/rb/teleconference/top_ten_ways_to_reduce_enterprise_database/q/id/2336/t/1http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/long/dm-0610chang/http://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/solutions/pdf/toxic_tb.pdf

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