IBM Systems Magazine, Power Systems - June 2018 - 15
increasing. The aforementioned IDC whitepaper estimates that from 2010 to 2020, server sprawl will cause a quadrupling of server management and administration costs, as well as power, cooling and data center footprint expense increases. Consider IBM Power Systems* servers instead of x86 technologies for Linux* instances, specifically OpenPOWER LC servers. These servers can support high utilization rates employing fewer servers. IBM OpenPOWER LC servers are price-advantaged over comparatively configured Intel* x86-based servers, costing 30 percent less in some configurations, according to IBM. IBM Systems Workload Estimator Tools are important to the success of any consolidation project and are critical for not only managing the current system, but also sizing the new consolidated environment. For server consolidation, the IBM Systems Workload Estimator (WLE), which is a web-based sizing tool for IBM Power Systems, is essential to complete early project sizing and planning (bit.ly/2F1k916). You can use this tool to size a new system, size an upgrade to an existing system or size a consolidation of several systems. WLE will characterize the projected workload either using your measurement data or by using one of the many workload plug-ins, which provide the necessary sizing guidance. The tool will provide current and growth recommendations for processor, memory and disk (whether internal or SAN) that satisfy the overall performance requirements. WLE can support estimates dealing with multiple systems, multiple partitions, multiple OSes and multiple sizing intervals. Consolidation Coexisting With Modernization At the same time that organizations are consolidating their IT infrastructure, they're also modernizing application workloads. For many, the monolithic application is ibmsystemsmag.com JUNE 2018 // 15