Building a Case for Server Consolidation

Aiden SerjeantTeranet, Inc.

Agenda

Who is Teranet?Approach must fit cultureBuilding the business caseSelling the conceptThe planning process

Who Is Teranet?Founded in 1991750 employees / 73,000 registered usersOperation of Ontario Land Reg. SystemeCommerce products & servicesGovernment and SMB clients5 corporate locations / 80 field sites400+ servers in 2 datacenters

The Challenge

Head-off server sprawlContain capital expensesReduce mounting support costsIncrease shareholder valueMeet all contractual & SLA reqs.

Approach Must Fit CultureKnow your culture and business drivers

Process-basedMethodologies Include: ITIL, RUP, TIDAL, TOPS

Risk AverseChange management, peer reviews

SLA ImplicationsGovernance processes, penalties affect revenue

Approach Must Fit CultureTypical VIM(VMware Infrastructure Methodology)

Assess/plan/build/manage

Teranet’s approachAssessmentBusiness case # 1 (all eligible servers)Proof-of-conceptBusiness case # 2 (Test/Dev servers ONLY)Deployment in phases (build/manage)

Teranet’s Approach

100

200

300

2001 2002 2003

Servers

238

330

168

HighAvailability

Failover

Redundancy

UAT

PTSe

rver

Gro

wth

Currently150+ Wintel

Servers

Assessment: Target servers

Teranet’s ApproachAssessment: Procurement cycle

Employeeemails

Request(assumed

standard VMconfiguration*)

Remedy Ticket Openedby CSC to obtain

Allocation ApprovalTicket assigned to DU Architect

DU Archetect reviews &,Approves (email to concerned parties), updates

the ticket* & forwards to their manager

$$

$

Allocation request accepted &returned to Requester to coordinate environment build

with the appropriate Change Request Form(Remedy ticket is updated and closed)

The environment is built as perCR instructions

CR is updated and closed, SID’s are createdwith all the appropriate information

Allocation Request submitted tomanager for review

& approval. Managerupdates ticket and is given a internal $ cost. Ticket

reassigned to Requester to co-ordinate environment creation

Allocation Request rejected& returned to

requester

VM Server AllocationAllocationRequest Review/Approval

Environment Build

If Non-standardArchitecture VM group

must approve

New Allocation Request

Teranet’s ApproachAssessment: Process changes

NIDNetwork Information Document

NADNetwork Information Document

SIDServer Information Document

SADSystem Architecture Document

Building the Business CaseProject Estimating (PREP)

Cost per “standard” virtual machine

Cost for infrastructure software

Building the Business CaseA PREP feeds the Business Case and may include:

Hardware (SAN, switch, server maintenance, SAN maintenance, switch maintenance)

Software (O/S licenses, ESX Server licenses, VC licenses, software maintenance)

Miscellaneous (environmentals, cabling, racks, consulting fees, migration costs)

Building the Business Case

VM_COST = COST_VMware/NO_VM + COST_SAN + COST_LABOR ($3,600 CAD)

COST_VMware: Total VMware cost (hardware, software) NO_VM: Estimated number of virtual machines per

physical server COST_SAN: Virtual machine’s SAN-related costs COST_LABOR: Virtual machine’s labor-related costs

Note: Individual virtual machine software costs were calculated separately. They include the O/S, system monitors, backup agents, Anti-virus, etc.

($3,700 CAD)

Cost per “standard” virtual machine

Building the Business CaseConsider ALL costs

Third-party software licensingSpeed to deliver solutions/serversSupport staff (+ or -)TrainingHardware/capital costs (+ and -)Server refresh cyclesBusiness revenue opportunities

Building the Business CaseBig Picture vs. Pilot Phase

Business case # 1Infrastructure, production, dev/test210 serversROI = 2 years5 year savings = $2.8M

Business case # 2Dev/test environment (low impact/low risk)60 serversROI: Self funding within same fiscal year1 year savings = $400k

Selling the ConceptProof-of-Concept

Simple but comprehensive test plansPartner consulting engagement: 15 daysKnowledge transferLab environment: Tracking/issue listInfrastructure integration testing

Selling the ConceptPersonal Success Factors

Know your businessRationalize the benefitsIdentify stakeholder “hot buttons”

Keep communications openArchitects, application managers, LOBBriefings, WPSR, Lunch-n-LearnLeverage vendor resources and relationships

Address issues and concernsListen for feedback

The Planning ProcessTimelines

Assessment : Jan. – Mar. 2004 Proof of Concept : Apr. – June 2004Business Case : Jul. – Oct. 2004Deployment 1 (Test/Dev.) : Jan. – May. 2005VM Hardening : July – Oct. 2005

Deployment 2 (Infrastructure) : Jan. – Sept. 2006Deployment 3 (Production) : Oct 2006

The Planning Process

Collab-orative

High I/O CPU Intensive

Test/Dev

IT Infra-structure

‘Sweet Spot’

1122

33

Selecting Target Servers

The Planning ProcessTimelines

Infrastructure

CollaborativeProduction Servers

Q3 200

6/07

Q4 200

6/07

Q2 200

6/07

Q1 200

5/06

The Planning ProcessBaby Steps/Low Lying Fruit

Test/dev. or infrastructure serversEarly and small winsMaintain momentumDemand deliverables with timelinesTie payments to milestonesBuild incentives for performance

Summary

Know your businessThorough Business CaseStakeholder buy-inRelentless planningRigorous Project Management

Questions?

Aiden.serjeant@teranet.ca

Thank you