Server Consolidation Project
I should start off by saying that if you are trying to consolidate your servers and you are not an IT guy, you might want to consider getting an IT guy on board to do this for you. Or an IT girl. Though last I heard, this was a pretty male-dominated community. Anyway, server consolidation is a tricky process, especially if you're a noob when it comes to computers, so please, if you are a member of the laity, you should talk to an IT firm about how best to go about doing this, and you should probably hire them. In the end it will save you time and money. That said, if you are not an IT guy, this article is written for you! I don't have the technical prowess to be considered an IT expert by any stretch of the imagination, so IT guys, I'm sure there are plenty of other places on the internet that can help you with your server consolidation project, I'm just here to try and make the nuts and bolts of it as clear as possible to the boss who has been told he needs to consolidate his servers but has no idea what that actually means. You, IT guy, won't learn anything here. So begone.
Okay, Mr. Boss man. Here's how it works. Sorry if I tell you things you already know too, but my biggest pet peeve in writing about tech stuff is esoteric BS that assumes you know everything about technology. Basically the server is what any system operates out of. The internet itself is actually just millions of servers across the world connected to a common network. These servers are essentially machines that support whatever you do on your computers or within your system, and they are the places that physically (and I mean physical in the minute electrical sense) store the information you type into your computer. They are the hardware that supports your software. Now, if you have a sizeable system that your company is operating, then you will require a large number of servers, because you have a lot of information that needs to be supported.
Now, the problem with servers is that your IT systems likely grew organically, meaning that one server would be working to capacity and that another one would need to be added, and as such, the system isn't necessarily as efficient as it could be. This wouldn't be a huge problem if servers weren't such an energy suck. Because of the huge amount of work they do, servers drain a TON of energy, especially when you have a bunch of servers together. On top of it, they also require cooling, which is to say you are spending money on air conditioning to make sure these servers don't heat. And servers require more air conditioning than your room-temperature thermostat you have sitting in the break room. So really, you are spending a lot of money on these servers, and your system might not be working at maximum efficiency.
So eventually, over a long enough timescale, a server consolidation project becomes absolutely necessary for your IT staff. What they will basically do is restructure the applications and the software of your system so that it can be supported on fewer servers, and so that these servers can work at maximum efficiency within the new system. Sometimes, this might also include the implementation of new programs and new systems entirely, but the typical IT department is trained to figure out how best to do this efficiently, and what programs best complement each other, and as such, which can be stored on the same server together. This is a pretty big project, it's one that will take a lot of time and a decent amount of testing as well. There's a possibility that during the server consolidation project your IT department will realize that an entire new system needs to be implemented for the company to be working at maximum efficiency, and that's what you'll eventually have to do. You, as the boss, need to know the following about a server consolidation project: first off, it's generally a big time-suck. If there are other more pressing things, keep your IT department on that. That said, don't put this off forever, or the server consolidation project is going to be downright expensive. You don't want to let the flaws in your system get out of control. The best way to do it is to constantly have your IT department integrating the programs and applications on your servers and making them as efficient as possible so you don't have any massive server consolidation projects you need to worry about.
Dedicated Window Server
