IT Cost Cutting Pressures
In the age of constant cost pressures within regulated industries (especially Pharma), IT departments are being asked to do more with less. (Translation: We're increasing your workload and cutting staff so don't sign up for that 5:00 Pilates class.)
But sometimes the answer has less to do with utilization of staff and more to do with utilization of servers. From a cost savings perspective, this is the true low hanging fruit. (Why is it that fruit gets all the glory? And what about tomatoes? Low hanging tomatoes are rotting on the ground.)
Server Proliferation
Often companies implementing new applications would follow a "one app needs one server" mentality. This is sort of like saying you have to take five kids to baseball practice and so you simply go out and buy four more cars. Seems like a waste of money and totally inefficient, right? That's because it is. Not only did you just waste money on the purchase, but you still have to fuel, maintain, insure and garage those extra cars. Servers and data centers are the same.
Consolidation: Why and Why Not?
So if it is all so obvious, why isn't server consolidation considered more often? Gartner estimated a few years ago that corporate servers run at a 20% capacity. A manufacturing manager wouldn't accept that situation in a production environment and IT managers shouldn't either.
In regulated industries, especially life sciences, there may be many reasons but typically one common one. Fear.
Remember our last blog about IT versus QA? FDA and audit guidelines practically scream "Don't touch that qualified server or those validated applications because we're watching you!"But it doesn't have to be that way. Granted, when FDR said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", he probably wasn't looking at a stack of non conforming reports from a stringent FDA auditor. But using Good Systems Practice (GSP) with a solid change management foundation combined with an understanding of when you should and shouldn't combine applications can make the whole process less risky and less costly.
For example, you shouldn't put your office applications on the same server as your clinical research data because that's just asking for trouble whenever you make a simple change to the office application. Sort of like avoiding having your salad on the same plate as your filet mignon. (Is this blog making anyone else hungry or is it just me?) But an assessment of your in-use applications and the current server set-up can help design a server consolidation plan of action that will work for your business needs, your regulatory needs and your financial goals.
Virtual Servers
New technologies in virtual servers increase the possibilities. Products like VMWare or offerings from HP, Sun and IBM create the behavior of application partitioning without the increased hardware purchases, and space requirements.
A short assessment is a good place to discover where to start your server consolidation project as well as help you identify that low hanging fr….non-vegetable and determine if you can take advantage of a virtual environment. We can help you with that. For more information on steps necessary to start saving money by eliminating things you don't need instead of people you do, see our white paper at www.csdg.com or contact me through blog@csdg.com.
We welcome your comments and questions here at the Round….even if you want to throw tomatoes.
The Marketing Maven.
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