You also need to look at the other side of the coin. Consolidation of IT (mostly server and storage).

And don´t forget this will probably have an impact on the organization and processes as well. The organization was probably as scattered and decentralized as the datacenters were. So some of your staff may need to start looking for either a new home or a new job. And Centrlized IT needs different processes, other skills, etc.

The result is more then just a condolidation or migration project. We are in most cases talking about transformation.

Aernoud

Prior to 2004, individual agencies ran duplicative, incompatible IT systems, without standardization of security, upgrades or customer service. Consolidating those operations is an enormously complex challenge. To be candid, the early project planners’ vision for cost savings was unrealistic. They lacked a clear understanding of several important factors.

One of these is the cost to individual agencies before consolidation. Comprehensive cost records don’t exist in many cases, and agencies lacked a uniform way of recording and managing them. Consequently, we have no realistic starting point for comprehensively evaluating today’s costs against those that agencies carried prior to consolidation.

Another challenge that early managers did not anticipate was the dramatic increase in demand for processing power, data storage and network services. Growth in demand has averaged 40 percent since the new State Data Center became operational, a fact that quickly made the original consolidation plan unworkable.

The audit suggested—again, on the basis of the old plan—that consolidation may not achieve hoped-for savings and benefits. Though there is an extended implementation schedule, which allows development of more detailed cost information, the opportunities for savings still exist.

The data center has already seen substantial savings and benefits made possible by consolidation and aggressive management. They have pre-consolidation cost records of some small agencies, and know their costs have decreased an average of 12 percent. Technological advances will bring greater savings in the future.

Second, the SDC has generated huge reductions in energy consumption. Since start-up, consumption is approximately 36 percent lower than the aggregate consumption by agencies before consolidation.