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Data centers are like houses. You buy your first (and perhaps subsequent ones) thinking that the money you were spending in rent is now going to a mortgage, blissfully unaware that your plumbing will explode three months down the road, and no landlord is going to clean up the mess or pay to fix it. 

And now, data centers are even more like houses. Fewer people can afford them as they stand, and those who still can need to do everything possible to save every penny and avoid any potential problems that could lead to economic ruin. 

Fortunately, you may be able to pull this sleight of hand with a few tips to guide you in the right direction. Some of these tips are quick and dirty, while others require more thought and preparation; nevertheless, all of them can offer ways to slice your costs. 

Determine Infrastructure Baseline 

Adam Kerrison, CTO at London, data center search platform provider Tideway (www.tideway.com), says your first step should be to conduct an infrastructure baseline that will reveal a complete and accurate inventory of all the resources in your data center, along with its interdependencies with other parts of your organization. 

"Establishing this type of IT transparency in data centers can help identify underused and energy-hogging resources, extraneous software instances, duplicate applications, and gaps in the infrastructure that may be putting the company at risk," says Kerrison. 

Michael Hogan, global offering manager of site and facilities services at IBM, says that once you determine your infrastructure baseline, you can then cull underutilized servers and other IT hardware. "Many small and midsized enterprises have what we call ‘server sprawl,’ servers located in communication or wiring closets, under desks, in the data center, and so forth, with specific servers assigned to specific applications," says Hogan, adding that many IT admins may not have even been aware of the existence of some of this hardware. 

Once you know what tasks your servers are performing, you can then determine which ones are expendable, Hogan explains. "Simply stated, the fewer pieces of IT hardware you have, the [less] power you consume. The potential to consolidate and virtualize workloads onto fewer servers and on servers that are procured because they are energy-efficient reinforces this energy savings message," he says. 

Turn Tasks Into Automated Processes 

Kelly Mackin, COO and president of data governance service provider DataMotion (www.datamotion.com), says that turning many of your tasks into automated processes leads to greater overall efficiencies. 

"Look for solutions where intelligence is integrated into those processes without the need for human intervention," Mackin says. For example, the average employee spends 847 out of 2,000 hours in a work year using email, many of which are spent unproductively tracking emails, searching for content, or transferring files. Those hours could be better utilized by letting automation take care of these tasks and freeing up hours for these people to invest in tasks that reduce the chance for human error, improve data center productivity, and improve ROI for the company in general. 

Take Advantage Of Cloud Computing 

According to Mackin, cloud computing services are rapidly becoming business must-haves, offering speed, low cost of entry and total cost of ownership, reduction of IT resources required, enhanced security, reduction in downtime, and reduction in required bandwidth. You can leverage cloud computing for a number of uses, including technology-enabled services and data movement, process automation, business continuity, and workflow via the Internet, Mackin says. 

"Take a look at every IT solution and assess whether cloud computing might be an appropriate model for you," advises Mackin. "In today’s tough economic climate where TCO plays a big part in decision-making, cloud computing makes a lot of sense."

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