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Commonsense approach leverages virtualization technologies across the datacenter to slash energy and space costs and radically improve performance
 Hello again, Inner Circle readers — it’s Bob Worrall with a departure from my usual letter format. This month I'm going to appear via video on your desktop (if you so choose). You’ll see a recent talk I gave about the tremendous amount of money Sun has saved by taking a new approach to datacenter consolidation that includes virtualization and several architectural innovations.
The video explains how Sun cut energy costs by 60 percent and reduced floor space by
88 percent achieving savings in the millions of dollars. An increasing number of IT organizations
are being held responsible for operational expenses, and I hope you’ll find our findings
informative and helpful.
Five Key Consolidation Lessons Learned
As you’ll see in the video, we learned five key lessons about consolidation in this project:
- Not waiting. Consolidation savings can be realized very quickly. Incrementally.
- Using industry-standard components, such as servers and storage devices. These are really all that most organizations require for consolidation.
- Constantly assessing technical refresh opportunities. This allows organizations to eliminate datacenter energy-guzzlers.
- Measuring, measuring, measuring. The utility companies know how much money you’re spending on energy — and so should your organization.
- Virtualization. Across the board. This is key to consolidation efforts that make a difference to the bottom line.
Standard Sun Technologies Radically Improve Performance
It wasn’t magic. Use of standard technology for consolidation enabled us to increase server performance by 456 percent and storage capacity by 244 percent — while using less than half the number of original systems. What’s more, we avoided more than $9 million in construction costs. Our technology lineup included:
In the process of consolidation, Sun also substantially reduced its carbon footprint. We didn’t set out to save the planet — it just turns out that being frugal about energy and real estate costs can also help combat global warming. Good things happen when you do things the right way.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Bob Worrall
CIO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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Bob Worrall explains how Sun saved millions with datacenter consolidation.
