Strategies for a Successful Data Center Consolidation

Here are four strategies to ensure your data center consolidation goes smoothly and leads to the cost savings and performance improvements you’re seeking.

1. Understand the Real Cost of Data Center Sprawl

First, it’s important to level set about the costs of not consolidating data centers, once you’ve identified a need to do so. Because there are costs associated with the consolidation, it may seem like the alternative — doing nothing — may actually be an economically viable option.

In reality, that’s not the case. For one thing, the costs of consolidating are one-time expenses; once the consolidation is complete, you’ll start enjoying the savings associated with a smaller data center footprint. But the more important concern is the potential for loss that exists if you maintain a dispersed data center footprint after you’ve identified a need to consolidate. Potential sources of loss include the following:

• Security — The more physical locations you have, the greater your potential for a security breach. The easiest way to hack a data center is to walk through the front door and install malicious software — maybe wearing an AT&T uniform and carrying a clipboard. In addition to digital security infrastructure, data centers have to have physical security personnel, which costs money. Then there’s the potential for a data breach, and, again, the more physical locations you have, the greater your risk of a breach.
• Personnel — Besides guards, every data center needs management personnel to maintain machines, fix problems, and generally ensure that things are running smoothly. Reducing the number of physical locations you maintain lets you cut your personnel costs.
• Natural disasters — If one or more of your data centers currently sits in an area prone to flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, or some other natural disaster, your risk of loss is tremendous. In an era of increasingly severe weather events, leaving a data center in a vulnerable location is asking for a major outage. Consolidate to safer geographies to avoid a major unplanned expense.

Once you’ve convinced everyone who needs to be convinced that data center consolidation is not optional, it’s time to consider the logistics of consolidating.

2. Upgrade Equipment for Greater Efficiency

In most cases, consolidating your data centers will require you to purchase at least some new equipment. Making these purchases strategically can help you minimize downtime and achieve peak efficiency as soon as possible. 

The right strategy, of course, depends on your consolidation plan. 

For example, if you’re reducing the amount of space you take up in a colo facility, you’ll want to find ways to reduce your total rackspace and the total amount of traffic you take up on the local fabric. Getting all of your equipment to one physical area can help achieve this — in that configuration, you may be able to use the minimal number of switches for all east-west traffic and minimize east-west traffic on the colo’s fabric.

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