Only 23pc IT managers track data centre consolidation savings

ALEXANDRIA, USA: Barely one in four, 23 per cent, of Federal IT decision makers says that their IT departments can track full data centre consolidation savings, which limits their ability to quantify and reinvest savings.

This is according to a new study, "Measure to Manage II: Consolidation Crash Course?", released by MeriTalk and underwritten by NetApp.

The study also finds that 67 per cent of respondents do not know average kilowatts per rack electricity usage across their data centres, and 24 per cent do not know their data storage efficiency.

The study of 157 Federal IT decision makers reveals that 84 per cent of Federal agencies are working on data centre consolidation, which aligns with the Office of Management Budget's, OMB, mandate to close 800 data centres by 2015.

However, there are significant efficiency metric blind spots. While energy consumes 12 per cent of typical data centre budgets, 77 per cent do not know the Power Use Effectiveness, PUE, across their data centres.

"Today's report from MeriTalk should be a bright warning light for those of us interested in closing and consolidating wasteful and duplicative data centres," said Senator Tom Carper, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "According to the report, barely a quarter of Federal IT personnel say they fully track the savings from consolidation. There's also little knowledge about how much -- and how efficiently -- Federal data centers are using energy. While we are trying to cut the fat from our data centre budgets, it seems we can't even see over our belts to the number on the scale."

The study also notes that:

Twenty three per cent of survey respondents from Federal agencies know their PUE versus 82 per cent in the private sector.

Thirty one per cent of survey respondents from Federal agencies know the average load across their data centres versus 94 per cent in the private sector.

Fewer than half, 42 per cent, of Federal IT decision makers agree that their IT departments have an incentive to achieve data center savings, including savings that will be realized by budgets outside of IT.

While Federal IT decision makers recognize consolidation will deliver savings beyond IT,  energy, real estate, and personnel, agencies lack visibility to capture the hard savings numbers.

"The GAO has identified Federal data centers as a major source of wasteful duplication in the Federal government," Senator Carper said. "Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has announced that 137 data centres will be closed this year with the goal of closing another 600-plus by 2015."

"If we're going to get beyond the low-hanging fruit, or the fruit already on the ground, we need to make sure that we have the information available and incentives in place to make it work. In the coming weeks, my subcommittee looks forward to reviewing the progress towards closing down these wasteful data centres and assessing what more needs to be done," he added.

Fewer than half of respondents track key data centre storage efficiency metrics, such as capacity allocation and consumption, provisioning time, and incident metrics. As a result, agencies appear to lack a clear picture of current data centre utilization, 47 per cent of respondents are unsure of the storage capacity currently utilized in their data centres.

"We applaud OMB's efforts to realize more flexible and efficient IT performance through consolidation," said Mark Weber, president of US Public Sector, NetApp. "As a next step agency IT departments need to achieve improved insight into their overall data centre efficiency and storage utilization gains to enhance their ability to reinvest those savings and improve service quality. To accomplish this, a common set of metrics must be established so that agencies can agree on what to track in order to accurately measure results and demonstrate savings."