SQL Server 2000 Consolidation: a business case

Figure 2. SQL Server environment—detailed activity costs
Source: Strategic IT Initiatives: TCO Benefits of SQL Server (www.nervewire.com)
As Figure 2 depicts, managing a large server environment can be not only expensive, but also labor-
intensive—slowing progress on other projects, as personnel are busy maintaining existing servers.
As ConsolidateMe.com comes to grips with the growing maintenance cost of its sprawling server
environment, it recognizes the need for consolidation. Consolidation offers the following advantages
to ConsolidateMe.com:
• Centralized management
• Better use of hardware resources
• Standardization of platforms and processes
• Greater return on hardware investment
• Reduced operational costs (may include staffing and administration costs)
• Lower operating system and/or application licenses
What does consolidation entail?
Consolidation has two primary goals:
• To provide at least the same level of functionality and service as the pre-consolidation environment,
while using fewer servers to lower operational cost and management overhead
• To provide an architecture that can scale efficiently as the business grows
As seen in the case of ConsolidateMe.com, corporate data centers are full of perceived “under-
utilized” 32-bit server capacity. This is due not only to the low cost of commodity servers, but also to
the fact that SQL servers are sized on the basis of their peak memory and CPU needs—which often
leads to systems that are memory-constrained but not CPU-constrained. This is can be viewed largely
as a memory-consolidation and CPU-reduction exercise. For example, three 4 GB/4 CPU servers
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