* Data center consolidation across technologies

By Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Network World, 07/26/05

On the road to a flexible data center, there are four major steps: consolidation, standardization, virtualization and utility. In this article, we will examine the challenges and implications of embarking on the first step: consolidation.

A funny thing is happening in enterprises today. While companies are becoming increasingly distributed and virtualized - employees working remotely from their managers, virtual teams, teleworkers and home offices - data centers are becoming more centralized. Data center managers are pressured to reduce costs, reduce complexity and increase availability. To achieve these goals, they must consolidate data centers into as few as possible. We have seen some cases where more than 60 data centers have been consolidated down to four data centers.