New tools designed for IT efficiency help identify what is useful and when. This knowledge makes it easy to establish an on-going process to reclaim unused resources and avoid unnecessary spend.
Traditional tools designed for systems and operations management struggle to deliver reports on the useful work a server is doing. Often a report of how busy a CPU is over time is used to represent how much “usage” took place. Most servers are loaded with standard software that has to be on every corporate server – antivirus software, systems management, back up and event monitoring – so each server looks busy but they fail to reveal when or if that CPU usage provided business value.
Although virtualization has clear benefits, including a reduction in energy consumption and floor space to get the most out of virtualization you should be prepared to invest in tools which monitor efficiency, specifically the amount of useful work your IT assets are doing.
Want to hear more? Continue on to our Server Efficiency: Make significant savings in your data center page where you can download a free Gartner paper.