How much money can i save with Virtualization?
Here's the cool stuff. After writing on Bernard's story on Virtualization (Click here for that story), i received numerous emails asking me how much did Bernard save. They are simply not convinced that Server Virtualization does help them save money. Incidentally, i was also pulled into a press interview. The interview was about how to help your organization save money, and one of the ways to save money is through Server Virtualization.
I am not sure when this article will go out, but its by a prominent new's paper that goes out every Wednesday in Singapore focusing on Computing. Hint is pretty obvious i think. <grin>
Lets re-visit Bernard's case. The journalist was very interested in Bernard's story and wanted to know how much he saved. Thus i took a simple, locally developed, Windows CE powered power meter - courtesy of Microsoft Innovation Centre, to Bernard's Data centre. I came back with measurements of the power consumption of the servers in question. I am here to share with you how you can calculate the savings. Its intended to be a guide, not meant to be exhaustive.
Project Intention:
Bernard was to plan and embark on an IT infrastructure to increase computing availability from 18 to 70 computing servers world wide distributed across 6 geographical locations; Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Europe, China and US. The computing infrastructure needs to be efficient, cost effective, easy to manage and deploy, saves power and maximizes utilization of hardware.
Current utilization stands at average of 15% to 25% based on the old hardware.
Current Hardware:
Bernard has an existing infrastructure which consists of 18 servers (2 different models). These 18 servers are 3 years of age and had ran out of warranty. A service maintenance needs to be purchased.
A difficulty that they faced currently is to have operating system isolation between the engineers who could be sharing the same server depending on where they are located.
Power Consumption of the current servers:
Old Server Model 1: $90
Old Server Model 2: $100
New Server Model: $55
SAN Model: $40The above are monthly running costs, based on 30 days 24x7.
The Choices to make to achieve objectives:
Scenario 1: Go Fully Virtualized (20 New Physical Servers - This is the implementation Bernard chose)
Scenario 2: Without Virtualization (70 New Physcial servers)
Scenario 3: Without Virtualization (18 [12 Model 1 & 6 Model 2] old Physical servers with 52 new Physical Servers)
Scenario Hardware Costs Software Costs Power Consumption (1Yr) Total (HW+SW+Power) 1 20 x $5000 = $100,000
10 SAN x $8000 = $80,00020 x $3000 = $60,000 20 x $55 x 12 mths = $13,200
10 x $40 x 12 mths = $4,800$258,000 2 70 x $4000 = $280,000 70 x $3000 = $210,000 70 x $55 x 12 mths = $46,200 $536,200 3 18 x $0 = $0
52 x $4000 = $208,00018 x $0 = $0
52 x $3000 = $156,00012 x $90 x 12 mths = $12,960
6 x $100 x 12 mths = $7,200
52 x $55 x 12 mths = $34,320
$418,480
(Excludes $300 x 18 server maintenance fee 1 yr for out of warranty servers)Notes:
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition: 1 - $3000
- Virtualization Licensing allows for 4 VMs on 1 Windows Server 2003/2008 Enterprise Edition at no costs
- 1 SAN Unit to 2 Servers: SAN with 15 x 750GB Storage
- Scenario 1 & 2: Hardware are the same, Scenario 1's Server has more RAM for Server Virtualization
Annual Power Consumption:
Scenario 1 Yr 2 Yrs 3 Yrs 1 $18,000 $36,000 $48,000 2 $46,200 $92,400 $138,600 3 $54,480 $108,960 $163,440 Power Consumption: Year-On-Year Cumulative
Over a 3 year period of operations: Bernard would have saved up to $75,840.
This amount could have gotten Bernard another 15 servers.
Conclusion:
From the table above, it was evidently clear why Bernard chose Scenario 1. He saved $278,200 over scenario 2 and $160,480 over scenario 3. With the newer servers, utilization of the newer hardware stands at about 40%-50%.
From the scenarios, i really do not see how a company cannot benefit from Server Virtualization.
Bernard made a good judgment and choice to move towards virtualization. In this project, he combined the strength of Presentation Virtualization with Server Virtualization. Bernard, i applause the money you have saved for O2Micro, and of course, the forward looking directions you have made. I don't think anyone deserves the title of an IT Hero more than you.
/Dennis
