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Data center capacity planning

• Evaluate hyper-converged for high-density data centers

  Although rising data center densities don't seem problematic for hyperscale providers, they create challenges for enterprises. Discover how hyper-converged systems can help. Continue Reading

• Build a high-availability system with containers, data mirroring

  Traditional backup systems are no longer the go-to data recovery method for IT. Learn how to create high availability with containers, data mirroring and cloud. Continue Reading

• Anticipate data center challenges with an IT monitoring strategy

  Data center challenges come in all shapes and sizes, but by keeping close tabs on systems and data, admins can be ready to react. Continue Reading

• Five IT troubleshooting tips to beat storage, network bottlenecks

  When something goes wrong in the data center, there are many possible culprits, ranging from the network to storage. Here are some tips to identify and solve common bottlenecks. Continue Reading

• Mainframe capacity planning takes on unpredictable workloads

  An extension of Capacity Provisioning Manager into the hardware eases mainframe capacity planning headaches. Continue Reading

• Two key aspects to consolidating data centers after an acquisition

  When consolidating data centers after a corporate merger, scrutinize custom software applications and security. You may improve IT operations.Continue Reading

• Adopt this battle-tested IT implementation plan

  New business initiatives live or die by the quality of their IT implementation plan. Experienced IT teams share their methodology.Continue Reading

• Cut data center sprawl to improve IT capacity

  This guide offers tips and strategies to corral all types of sprawl -- VM, server and automation -- as well as other drains to data center resources.Continue Reading

• Who controls big data implementation?

  In the rush to capitalize on big data, enterprises can pitch a battle against their own IT departments. In these conflicts, no one comes out the winner.Continue Reading

• Managing shadow IT risk to the business

  With more users turning to external IT platforms to meet business needs, IT professionals must take steps to start managing shadow IT.Continue Reading

• Do I need another VM host server?

  Operations manager Adam Fowler explains the many factors that determine a VM host server's ability to increase its workload and whether you need to buy additional equipment for your VMs.Continue Reading

• Guide to software-defined everything in the data center

  It's time to start thinking about a software-defined infrastructure in the data center. Here are benefits of software-defined architectures, tips for implementation and tools to help.Continue Reading

• Outsource IT support without losing control

  Secure a highly available IT platform by ensuring you have the best data center support. Without precautions, you may suffer from greedy resellers and vendors.Continue Reading

• Resolve a network bottleneck with these techniques

  Data center network performance problems will disappear with fixes from a simple reorganization through a strategic overhaul.Continue Reading

• Are new data center cabinets too heavy for the floor?

  We built a data center several years ago and are refreshing the IT equipment in it. Should I worry about how big and heavy my new cabinets will be for the existing structure?Continue Reading

• MLAG installs flatten network without a forklift upgrade

  Hierarchical networks cause undue latency as well as bandwidth and port loss. MLAG removes potential STP problems and gives you a flatter pre-fabric network.Continue Reading

• Keep your server sharp and upgrade memory techniques

  It's about memory, remember? This guide covers the server memory choices -- flash, DIMMs, multi-channel -- that might solve problems in your IT shop.Continue Reading

• DCIM vendors' promises vs. data center realities

  Weigh the cost, integration and staffing implications of DCIM to make a smart buy and put DCIM's monitoring and analytical capabilities to work.Continue Reading

• Big data strategies live or die by their data center infrastructure

  Have high hopes for big data? A successful analytics and reporting strategy starts from the ground up with these data center infrastructure changes.Continue Reading

• Protect access layers from BYOD node creep

  Bring your own device doesn't mean bring your own network support. What is BYOD doing to your data center's network resources?Continue Reading

• IT's vendor evaluation criteria change -- again

  IT departments want to shrink their list of suppliers -- but should it be longer? Cloud, mobility and big data have IT rethinking vendor selection.Continue Reading

• A data center migration checklist to mitigate risk

  Alleviate the pain points for IT upgrades, consolidation or mergers with this 10-step data center migration checklist.Continue Reading

• What data center Tier levels can and cannot tell you about uptime

  When it's time to go colo, it's important to know what level of facility uptime you need, as well as the data center operator's specific procedures.Continue Reading

• Used servers live longer with virtualization, updates and support

  Server refresh cycles can be more nuanced than a rip and replace of used servers. Consider these options for longer server lifecycles.Continue Reading

• No faults here: Advanced techniques to attain more reliable servers

  A new generation of reliability features can keep busy servers running in the face of serious fault conditions.Continue Reading

• Coping with integrated infrastructure deployment problems

  Despite management gains, integrated infrastructures come with a slew of headaches, such as vendor lock-in. Should your data center risk it?Continue Reading

• Better enterprise information architecture gives new life to OLTP

  Now that enterprises collect tons of data, they're using online transaction processing, data warehousing and data virtualization to make sense of it.Continue Reading

• Playing the economics game with IT lifecycle management

  How long is too long to keep IT assets around? Be sure to consider all the factors involved with IT lifecycle management.Continue Reading

• How to handle big data in enterprise IT environments

  Database appliances are emerging as unlikely heroes of big data handling in enterprise data centers, not least of all because IBM acquired Netezza.Continue Reading

• Evaluating an appliance server against traditional server deployment

  Appliance servers sound good, but consider the tangible benefits of application-specific server deployment against current costs and future needs.Continue Reading

• SAN complexity drives enterprises to manage storage via virtualization

  Enterprise storage can be complex and difficult to manage. Using virtualization to manage storage simplifies administration and boosts performance.Continue Reading

• How does the OpenFlow protocol ease traffic in the data center network?

  The OpenFlow protocol helps push packets more efficiently as an increasing number of workloads try to fit through network pipes.Continue Reading

• Five data center upgrade strategies to modernize your facility

  These five data center upgrade strategies can revitalize older data centers and stave off expensive construction projects.Continue Reading

• The basics of selecting server memory

  Understanding modern memory helps IT professionals make the best choices for selecting a server memory configuration and upgrades.Continue Reading

• A deeper look at memory ranks, channels and types

  Looking for new server memory? Learning about memory ranks, channels and types is a good step to making the right choice.Continue Reading

• How a server redundancy mindset helps with capacity planning

  Though there is no "one size fits all" way to approach capacity planning, server redundancy is a good place to start.Continue Reading

• How do I justify data center expansion plans and expenditures?

  Funding a data center project or an expansion requires building a business case that focuses on three areas.Continue Reading

• The basics of selecting server memory

  Understanding modern memory helps IT professionals make the best choices for selecting a server memory configuration and upgrades.Continue Reading

• A deeper look at memory ranks, channels and types

  Looking for new server memory? Learning about memory ranks, channels and types is a good step to making the right choice.Continue Reading

• Options for outsourcing IT services to the cloud

  If your business is thinking about outsourcing IT services to a cloud provider, it's important to look at the differences between the options.Continue Reading

• Weighing cloud computing risks from a data center perspective

  Deciding whether the cloud computing risks are worth migrating some or all of your workloads? A gradual, tested approach may be the best bet.Continue Reading

• Modern server room design to fit your business needs

  Server room design has changed. So when planning one for an existing facility, make sure it meets current and future needs.Continue Reading

• Vendors take different paths with converged infrastructure tools

  As enterprises deploy converged infrastructure solutions, vendors develop variations to gain an advantage. But is a unified system right for you?Continue Reading

• Fully explore modular data center scenarios to avoid headaches

  A container-based modular data center can ease the strain on the existing data center. Follow these tips to avoid snags prior to deployment.Continue Reading

• FAQ: Make the most of VM resources with strategic allocation

  Optimizing the allocation of VM resources will help make the most of data center virtualization.Continue Reading

• Plan for IT disruptions to continue business as usual

  When plotting out your upgrades and agenda, make sure to include proper planning to save money and avoid frustration.Continue Reading

• Flexible computing in business: Move to cloud computing or go modular?

  A move to cloud computing could provide business IT with flexibility, but what are the options for those who aren't quite convinced about cloud?Continue Reading

• Think before you build with data center predictive modeling

  If you're thinking about a new data center for your business, data center predictive modeling can help you cover all your bases right up front.Continue Reading

• Can you cut data center infrastructure costs with new analytics tools?

  Leveraging new tools based on 'big data' analytics could help companies save money on data center infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Keeping up with ‘big data’ analytics means change in your data center

  Many factors determine how to alter your operating environment to prepare for future “big data” analytics and business intelligence needs.Continue Reading

• Optimize data center virtualization with strategic capacity planning

  Use strategic capacity planning to future-proof your data center's virtualization efficiency and make the most of server hardware.Continue Reading

• Will SSD performance benefit your data center?

  SSD performance alone may not give you the results you expect following a hardware upgrade.Continue Reading

• Microsoft's System Center 2012 designed to ease data center management

  Microsoft's System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Virtual Machine Manager 2012 aims to please system administrators.Continue Reading

• Scale-up or scale-out: What fits best in your data center?

  A growing enterprise with the need for more computing power will have to decide whether to take a scale-out or scale-up approach.Continue Reading

• Preventing virtual resource oversubscription with capacity management

  Identify the symptoms of resource oversubscription, and learn capacity management strategies to prevent it.Continue Reading

• Improving server capacity planning

  Allocating computing resources to changing workloads is an ongoing challenge, but proper server capacity planning can lead to more efficient use of a data center's resources.Continue Reading

• Setting up a centralized Linux log server

  One of the many benefits of using Linux as a central logging server is that you can set up logging via syslog. Syslog allows messages to be sent over the network to a centralized log host, which is the ideal scenario for managing logging.Continue Reading

• Increasing network bandwidth available to virtual machines

  These three tips on increasing the amount of network bandwidth available to your VMs, including virtual network creation, can also potentially increase a host server's VM density.Continue Reading

• Configuring load balancing with Linux Virtual Server

  Using Linux Virtual Server, learn how to configure load balancing to help avoid busy servers and achieve optimal resource utilization on your Linux system.Continue Reading

• Best practices for VM workload management, resource allocation

  Effective VM workload management practices such as setting metrics can help you achieve the most efficient workloads and avoid the mistake of over-allocating resources to a VM.Continue Reading

• Three options for data storage management that combat sprawl

  Lower costs make it tempting to add more storage to a network, but poor integration can lead to storage sprawl. These three data storage management options could be the fix.Continue Reading

• Tape backup storage will remain relevant in the data center

  Recent moves by Oracle and IBM suggest continued support for tape backup storage, while a new EMC campaign advocates a switch to disk. In this tip, a mainframe expert argues that tape-based storage will continue to be critical for data centers and ...Continue Reading

• WAN acceleration for data centers: How can it help you?

  WAN acceleration in the data center can prioritize critical business data into the fast lane over the network, improving application performance across the WAN.Continue Reading

• Finding the best capacity planning tool for your data center

  A capacity planning tool can benefit data centers by collecting data, managing virtual machines and preventing bottlenecks. Keep these considerations in mind when choosing and implementing a capacity planning tool.Continue Reading

• Five ways to consolidate servers and extend the life of your data center

  In this recession, data center managers are faced with growing IT demand and shrinking budgets. If your data center is running out of room for more servers, check out these top five tactics for shrinking your IT footprint.Continue Reading

• Capacity planning tools tutorial for Linux and Unix

  Effective capacity planning is a proactive way of ensuring that your data center servers will not prematurely run out of space or horsepower. Learn the tools available to help you, both native to Linux and Unix platforms including Solaris, Red Hat, ...Continue Reading

• Cheap commodity servers can turn into expensive investments

  Installing "cheap" commodity servers turns out to be more expensive than a capacity planning team and a data center equipment procurer plan.Continue Reading

• Mainframe capacity planning: More than MIPS

  Capacity planning is a well understood, strategic exercise. But data center managers need to consider strategic versus tactical performance planning to keep high-priority workloads running without problems.Continue Reading

• Data center consolidation, virtualization: Ultra-dense server deployments

  Combining blade server, virtualization and SAN technologies in the data center leads to ultra-dense server deployments, which can save on hardware costs and power.Continue Reading

• Step-by-step virtualization adoption: Capacity planning

  Not every service can be virtualized and that some services require special attention in order for virtualization to work.Continue Reading

• Top items in a capacity planning and performance monitoring program

  Regardless of the size or complexity of your organization, a capacity planning and performance monitoring program is essential for proactive planning and management of your data center.Continue Reading

• Ten things to consider when calculating the cost of downtime

  The cost and impact of downtime includes a wide range of variables that extends beyond the lost revenue and customers. To accurately asses the true cost, a study should be taken of all the items that contribute to reduction in availability as well ...Continue Reading

• Top 10 things to review when developing a hardware scalability plan

  Developing a plan for scalability for an application is based on many complex variables and requires a detailed analysis of the applications, operating systems, and hardware platforms to be used. Here are the top 10 items to include in your ...Continue Reading

• How can we design a scalable data center?

  Is there a rule of thumb to size the square footage for a new data center that is cost effective for at least another 10 years? If not, what are the major factors that we need to put into consideration with the new and future server technology in ...Continue Reading

• Four mistakes to avoid during data center consolidation

  If you don't adequately understand the issues that arise when you put more physical distance between users and servers, you set yourself up for potential failure.Continue Reading

• Are consolidation cost savings worth the effort?

  Is consolidating some of our Wintel servers woth the effort?Continue Reading

• Consolidation and virtualization: The same, but different

  While they're similar, these two approaches are also fundamentally different. Managers need to explore how to use both if they want to end server sprawl.Continue Reading