The Ten Second Test That Will Save Your Organisation Thousands

As we go about helping organisations we see a lot of virtualisation being used to save money on server hardware. But we are also seeing plenty of virtualisation used in ways that is going to eventually cost more than it saves. In short we are seeing some organisations suffer the midrange explosion that we warned about in our previous blog post.

That is - the idea of "free" servers is sometimes leading to the deployment of servers for roles of dubious value.

"If the server is free what's the harm?" I hear some readers ask. The problem is it's not what the server costs to buy that matters, it's what it costs to own. Further, as you add more and more computer systems complexity can have an amplifying effect on the cost of ownership of systems deployed.

When an organisation has to pay for "tin" upfront this acts as a natural restraint on over provisioning. When servers seem to be free sometimes this restraint is absent.

So, here is the 10 second test that will save your organisation thousands. Before you add a new virtual server for any ongoing production role to your design or architecture ask yourself this question - "If I had to pay for the tin would I still design it this way?"

If the answer to that question is not a solid yes then you need to re-think your approach.