Using network intelligence (provided by iQSonar) to cut energy costs, managers in one financial institution also reduced it’s IT related carbon footprint.

Having read somewhere that a server can have the same carbon footprint as 2 SUV’s, one of the institution’s IT team suggested running a network inventory at the weekend.  The results of a network scan by iQSonar were astounding – with 90% of PCs found to be running at 3am on a Saturday night!

The scan showed that most machines could be powered off at night and energy saving settings implemented.  Based on analyst data that put energy savings for a PC and monitor at approximately £50 annually, Management estimated that energy bills could be cut by £500,000 annually as a result of basic changes.  In an era of cost cutting and rising energy costs, these savings were welcome indeed.
About iQSonar

iQuate’s audit, inventory and monitoring suite, called iQSonar, enables organizations to discover, scan and track all PCs, software and devices in real time, pin pointing; licensing, utilization, compliance and other issues.

Our partners are all too aware that the changed economic climate has resulted in IT budgets being slashed and many key projects being delayed, postponed, or even scrapped.  The implication is that how organizations are buying and implementing IT has changed.

But it is not all bad news, some partners are making good progress despite the downturn and iQuate’s tools to provide more accurate IT intelligence, cut costs and more effectively implement IT projects are proving more useful than ever before.

What Today’s IT Buyers Want:

1. An immediate payback – most customers are delaying making decisions on any project that cannot demonstrate an immediate pay back.  They want to see results fast, or solve an immediate problem and they won’t just take the vendor’s  word for it.  They need evidence, or more to the point justification that is both verified and quantifiable.

2. Cutting the cost – there is widespread renegotiation of contracts, with customers seeking to cut back on rates, project days, etc.  With fewer new  projects starting and  increased vendor competition, suppliers have no choice but to adhere to customer requests for cost reductions.

3. Sharing the risk – vendors are having to consider risk – reward based pricing in order to revive stalled projects.  But how to reduce uncertaintly about the level of risk, or the likelihood of reward.  Again this is where more accurate and up to date IT intelligence is required.

4. Zero tolerance for project over runs, or delays.  Tighter control of spending and more disciplined project management of initiatives ranging from migration to vitalization.

5. Phased implementations – increasingly cash strapped and risk adverse customers are looking to break down major initiatives into bite size chunks that are both easier to manage and easier to fund.

6. New licensing models – in this era of IT cost cutting anything goes.  Vendors are ‘going back to the drawing board’ with software/hardware as a service and both the rates and the timing/staging of licensing under review.

7. Point solutions – in this present climate few IT managers and directors are out to change the world, or even their major systems.  The focus has turned to point solutions, that will solve an immediate pain.  Of course, these solutions must easily integrate with existing and future technologies.

8. An end to the Big Vendor bias? ‘We only buy HP,  or IBM’  is something that vendors are hearing less these days.  The trend towards consolidating all technologies with a single vendor is dead.  Even if this had proved successful, the budgets are not there for it at present.

How IQSonar Can help

So, a tool such as iQSonar that can be implemented in just days and tackles specific problems (e.g.  vendor license audit, or end of life notification) is much more popular than long term, or woolly ITAM initiatives.

Examples includes a vendor undertaking a virtualization, or a software migration project who identifies, because of a detailed profile of all hardware and software can cut costs, verifiably track progress and more manage project risks.

How mapping applications to infrastructure played  a key role in successfully consolidating 20 data centres into one.

Data Centre Consolidaton Plans

One of our clients, a major UK Bank, was planning to consolidate 20 data centres into one.  This initiative represented a key pillar of the bank’s overall IT strategy and was aimed at underpinning business competitiveness in a toughening market climate.

Project Risks – Unexpected Downtime

At the planning stage senior IT staff realised that there were gaps in the information regarding the diverse array of  hardware and software functioning across the existing data centres.  This was considered to represent a significant project risk.  In particular, managers were concerned about the prospect of key business applications unexpectedly going off line during the consolidation process.

Afterall, the glory that would result from the project’s success, would quickly be overshadowed as a result of unexpected downtime on the part of any one of a host of key business applications.  But what applications were at risk?  What pieces of hardware did these applications dependent upon?

The Solution – Mapping Critical Applications

Using iQSonar the bank mapped critical applications to pre- and post- consolidation infrastructures, identifing key applications and where they were running.

With the pre-consolidation inventory changed substantially, plans for the new consolidated data centre need to changed accordingly.  In particular a host of machines were identified as redundant, while others were earmarked for reuse.

During implementation iQSonar provided managers with a real time picture of the bank’s changing data centre infrastructure, tracking progress and pinpointing any issues in terms of security, compliance, etc.

The bank’s consolidation drive was to be accompanied by a refresh of infrastructure, including hardware and software upgrades and a significant virtualization drive.  iQSonar’s detailed inventory, including hardware specs, serial numbers, capacity, etc., played an important role here.

Furthermore, iQSonar’s scan of the networks in the 20 data centres identified hundreds of devices (routers, switches, PCs and servers) that were previously unaccounted for.

Today, iQSonar monitors the consolidated data centre in real time, providing managers with full visibility and control of all software and hardware.

About iQuate -

iQuate provides the tools to monitor and audit hardware and software to a levelof detail, accuracy and speed that was previously not possible.

Our audit, inventory and monitoring suite, called iQSonar enable organizations to discover, scan and track all PCs, software and devices in real time,pinpointing; licencing, utilization, compliance and other issues.

On the basis of this new and up-to-date information managers can; cut costs , maximize security, ensure compliance and otherwise more effectively manage their IT.