Server sprawl may be the bane of many it organizations' existence. But the events that led to it are quite reasonable. A workgroup in the organization needs a new application; so it buys a new server to run it on and locates it somewhere near the workgroup.
It’s a pay me now or pay me later situation. Up front, the one-server, one-application strategy is the easiest to implement. But it’s extremely inefficient when it comes to support, power and cooling. And buying or leasing a server that will be utilized to only a fraction of its capacity ignores your grandmother’s wise advice to 'waste not, want not.'
Of course, ten or so servers distributed throughout the building probably won't overburden IT or increase costs unacceptably. In fact, it's a reasonable strategy for small companies that have to implement new applications quickly. But when the sprawl grows into dozens or even hundreds of machines, each of which has to be serviced, periodically upgraded and backed up, the costs of support can become onerous.
Read this whitepaper to learn how to take control of server sprawl with a server consolidation solution.
Server Virtualization Research Library
