Server consolidation is just like any other means of business consolidation in that it concentrates tasks and eliminates waste in order to save money. The problem is that most people in the upper echelons of companies these days don't understand how a server works, what a server does, or what consolidation would even mean in terms of IT departments. The problem then isn't in a lack of understanding of business principles, which remain and have remained since the dawn of business: buy low, sell high, cut waste, increase profit. The problem is a lack of knowledge about what is going on downstairs in the IT department, and a lack of understanding of how to fix it. For too long, people have just paid out large sums of money to their IT department in hopes that everything will keep working, not realizing that if need be, there is an opportunity there to save some money in the short term, and possibly in the long term as well. It's not that people in IT like wasting money, or that the people in IT procurement are trying to rip you off. The bottom line is this: if you can play a full game of golf with only a driver, a putter, and a three iron, but if you have the opportunity, wouldn't you rather have a full bag of clubs, just to be safe? Well, in that same sense, sometimes companies are buying full bags of very expensive clubs when they really don't need to be. It's not that the clubs aren't all useful, but only that with the use you're getting out of them, they are sometimes a luxury you can't afford.

A server works in much the same way an employee in your business works. Just like an employee, a server will complete the task it is asked to do to the best of its ability. Unlike a personal computer which is designed to be versitile, do a number of tasks, and be user friendly, a server is essentially the same components designed to do handle many computations simulatenously or at the very least, in rapid succession, at a very fast rate.

A server is basically programmed to handle one task, and when it gets a request from another computer, it gets the data it has been asked for and sends it out to where it needs to go almost immediately. In this sense, servers are extremely efficient workers, but sometimes, they aren't used as much as they could be.The problem with a server used in this way is that it is only doing one task. If it is using all of it's computing power to complete this task, there is no need to consolidate, in just the same way that if you have an employee whose job it is to write sales reports, and this employee spends all day working really hard and produces great sales reports, there's no reason you would ask that employee to also mop the floors in the bathroom. However, sometimes, when a server is just set to serve a particular purpose, but isn't used that often, it won't be used to the best of it's ability, though it will still take just as much time, energy, and money to maintain it.

Basically, server consolidation is getting every server to work at it's maximum capacity at which you want it to operate without overloading it and risking a crash. In much the same way as you want every employee to have a full day's work to do every day, but you don't want to bury them and have them get too mired and get nothing done. Say you have a company website that gets tens of thousands of hits every day. Depending on how data intensive your website is, or how concentrated these hits are, this can take quite a few redundant servers to run the website. However, say you want to start another website that is only for the 100 people within your office to use to keep up with each other and keep each other posted on major projects. This second website might be run on it's own server, but a server is able to handle literally thousands of requests per day and won't be operating at anywhere near top capacity. This means it's time to consolidate.

Server consolidation uses a process called virtualization, in which virtual, or software based machines are created within a server, essentially creating two seperate devices within one which both use the same hardware. This can be done a few times within a server until you have completed your server consolidation, and each server is working just as hard as you want it do and you don't have to consolidate any further.

Add Your Comments about Dedicated Window Server: