Cisco Cisco UCS C220 M4 Rack Server Libro blanco
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IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
Data Center Management: The Key Ingredient for Reducing Server Power while Increasing Data Center Capacity
©2010 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
Introduction
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) devotes considerable time to discussions of current and
desired IT management technologies with CIOs and other IT operations personnel. Many consider an
ideal management stack to include the following features and capabilities:
Top-down modeling of business applications and dependencies
Holistic, policy-based, vendor-agnostic management of compute, storage, and network elements
Virtualization-aware management, including network, compute, storage and virtual machine
Holistic, policy-based, vendor-agnostic management of compute, storage, and network elements
Virtualization-aware management, including network, compute, storage and virtual machine
resources
Definition of business- and element-level policies, including application prioritization, required
Definition of business- and element-level policies, including application prioritization, required
performance levels, and desired optimal states
“Stateless” management capabilities that abstract business applications from underlying hardware
Single management console that incorporates all management capabilities while requiring a single
“Stateless” management capabilities that abstract business applications from underlying hardware
Single management console that incorporates all management capabilities while requiring a single
multi-purpose agent on managed devices
Orchestration capabilities that fluidly combine all management capabilities, increasing data center
Orchestration capabilities that fluidly combine all management capabilities, increasing data center
efficiencies while reducing overhead, saving money and resources
This wish list is a tall order to fill, but certain vendors are making excellent progress toward fulfilling
these requirements. Effective IT management provides many or all of these benefits:
Maximization of data center resource cost/benefit ratios
Increased application availability and performance
Decreased costs from automation of routine IT tasks and decreased hardware requirements
Increased application availability and performance
Decreased costs from automation of routine IT tasks and decreased hardware requirements
through reduced spare requirements
Increased compliance with corporate, IT and governmental regulations and policies
Decreased power requirements; increased data center scalability and density
Rapid adaptability to changing business demands, including provisioning of additional resources
Increased compliance with corporate, IT and governmental regulations and policies
Decreased power requirements; increased data center scalability and density
Rapid adaptability to changing business demands, including provisioning of additional resources
as needed to satisfy “burst” demands
This paper will focus on the application and benefits derived from this new breed of holistic IT
management technologies, with an emphasis on increased efficiencies, reduced costs, and the environ-
mental benefits that result from them. It then provides an in-depth comparison of the management
and server offerings from two industry heavyweights, Cisco and HP, and concludes with an EMA
analysis of these trends.
Business Drivers toward a New Management Paradigm
The drive to increase data center efficiencies has been unrelenting for a decade or more, and IT man-
agement is a key focus for many organizations seeking to reduce costs and minimize the environmental
impact from IT operations. This trend shows no signs of slowing down as organizations grow ever
more dependent on IT every day. Pressure to decrease power consumption and increase data center
density are seemingly at odds with increasing demand for compute, storage and networking capabilities.
At the center of the storm is the increase in server deployments, which EMA estimates will continue to
increase at a minimum of 10% CAGR for the next few years, incrementally accelerating over time.
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