Engagement Options

Data Center Consolidation Assessment & Optimization

The data center is a vast collection of devices, software, and processes that collaborate to create an information technology (IT) infrastructure that meets an organization’s business requirements. Burton Group’s research indicates that best practice organizations assess and revise their current data center topology for any of the following reasons:

• Globalization and entrance to new geographical markets
• Changes in financial conditions due to market cost pressure
• Reduction in supply costs for items such as telecommunications circuits
• Increase in supply costs for items such as facility and power consumptions
• Introduction of new technology and best practices such as virtualization
• Continuous growth through merger and acquisition
• Desire to strengthen business processes by reducing the application portfolio, which leads to better business staff utilization and/or improved customer/supplier relationship management
• Improved business resumption planning capabilities

Burton Group’s Data Center Consolidation Assessment and Optimization approach starts with profiling the current business environment and understanding the future business strategy. In the context of the current environment and industry best practices, Burton Group develops the end state topology for your Data Center(s).

This approach ensures that organizations rapidly review and analyze feasible scenarios with their advantages and disadvantages to narrow their options carefully and decide on the right course of action. Once the ideal data center consolidation scenario has been identified, Burton Group works with the client to build a detailed consolidation plan based on mitigating all identified technical, operational, and business process risks

The outcome of this engagement provides you with answers to the following key questions:

• How many long-term data centers does the organization need?
• What infrastructure elements and functions should be located in the data centers?
• What data center tier should the organization acquire, and what are the key facility requirements?
• Where should the organization locate its data center?
• What sourcing model should the organization use for its data centers?
• Which vendors should the organization include in an RFP?
• What data center operations model should the organization implement?
• What will the order of magnitude operating cost be in the end state?
• What approach and timeline should the organization follow to migrate to the target data centers?
• What order of magnitude investment does the organization require to migrate to the target data centers?

Approach

We accomplish this assessment by electronically surveying up to 10 key stakeholders drawn from cross-functional groups including IT, Security, Architecture, Data Center, Network Operations Centers, Customer Services, and other Line of Business executives concerned with data center management. We also review the relevant data center design and architecture documents maintained by your organization in order to get a quick yet thorough understanding of your data center consolidation strategy.

After receiving the completed surveys and reviewing your documentation, Burton Group consultants will review the survey responses with your team and correlate this information with your documented data center strategy. Following the on-site meeting, Burton Group will provide you with a written assessment, which will include a series of tactical and strategic recommendations focused on the specific topics above. As would be expected, Burton Group’s recommendations are based on industry best practices, technological capabilities, your organization's unique requirements, and other specific findings of the assessment.

Duration

The duration of the engagement is typically between 6-12 weeks.

To start this engagement, please contact Homan Farahmand at 905.952.0966