IT Managers Tackle Windows Server Sprawl

Computerworld - IT managers trying to cope with the high costs of managing scores or even hundreds of Windows servers -- especially grossly underutilized ones -- are looking to new options for workload consolidation that could help them rein in ballooning server sprawl.
Nine of the 14 corporate users interviewed last week by Computerworld said they're either deploying or considering the use of emerging virtual server software that will let them run multiple distinct copies of the Windows server operating system on a single Intel-based box.
VMware Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., currently ships two software-based partitioning products, and Connectix Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., is due to release a product in the first quarter of next year that will also let users carve up the processing power, disk, memory and, potentially, bandwidth of Intel-based boxes.
Few users appear to be aware of another potential workload consolidation option: Microsoft has yet to announce the Windows System Resource Manager, which it plans to ship via a separate CD with its upcoming Windows .Net Server 2003 Enterprise and Datacenter editions. The WSRM software can help users allocate processing power and memory for applications that run on the same copy of Windows.
But many corporate users said they need a single instance of Windows for each application, either because software vendors require it or because they worry that problems or changes to one application will cause others to slow or crash.
"You can always take a Clint Eastwood-based approach: 'Do you feel lucky?' " said Brian Richardson, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "With mission-critical applications, most people would prefer separate systems."
Tom Pane, vice president of technology at AnnTaylor Stores Corp., said the New York-based retailer is exploring consolidating some of its 90-plus Windows NT servers, possibly using VMware, because of the per-processor pricing models that his application vendors have moved to during the past 18 months.
He said a database server vendor might require a two-way box, to which he must add his network backup and management software. Each of those three vendors charges him for two processors, yet the applications may never use that second processor. "Some of these applications are using less than 30% of a box," Pane said. "We're just burning cycles on these machines for no reason. We could bring in a new box and combine the applications, and I drive my cost of services down."
Conseco Finance Corp. in Indianapolis used VMware software to consolidate small Windows-based applications, such as domain controllers and antivirus software,