consolidation

It is necessary to distinguish two types of consolidation: physical and logical. When the physical consolidation of servers physically moved to a single data center, while their representation in the network can remain the same, that is, a single physical server can be secured in several network services. Logical consolidation - an association of computer server resources possible without physically moving them into a single network resource. Now the necessary solutions begin to emerge. In particular, they allow you to manage the network from multiple physical servers as a single unit.

We formulate a set of requirements that must be satisfied, consolidation, so that its use must be economically viable: the availability of user applications after consolidation should not be changed, the style of user applications should not be complicated, information security should not get worse, should provide a significant reduction in total cost of ownership of the information system .

The simplest example of consolidation - the merging of two or more firms with different information systems. In this case, the consolidation can bring cost savings by eliminating overlaps and the efficient use of existing resources. Another example is the consolidation of information systems branch. It is important logical consolidation, which will allow the central office to control the operation of information systems branch.

During the transfer-intensive applications on centralized servers can reduce the cost of the workplace, for their organization by using cheaper computers that are running a strictly fixed set of programs - ideally, just a browser. Server consolidation into a single data center enables us to strengthen their protection and increase the reliability of the calculations. This applies to both physical security (providing access to the hardware) and network (remote access). This also applies to security as a centralized data center easier to ensure optimal environmental conditions, reliable power, constant backups and rapid implementation of routine maintenance than in the distributed system.

In each case, you can use their own methods and strategies of consolidation, which allowed it to optimize. Nevertheless, there is a universal solution - virtualization, which generally allows you to change the physical and logical configuration of an information system.