Most modern applications are focused on applications in computer networks, so their effective work usually does not depend on the physical location of computing power. If the enterprise has a developed network infrastructure, then it can be effectively used to optimize the costs that are usually associated with the maintenance of equipment. The essence of the idea is that it is necessary to create a single large center for processing information instead of a number of small server rooms. This is noticeably cheaper, since in a single center can be concentrated much more efficient server platforms, which will be managed by qualified personnel.
This method of optimizing the costs of supporting large information systems is becoming more common, and has called it consolidation. A special case of this is the rental of external computing power and applications when this process is performed on an external site.
Consolidation is a new approach to optimization
If we talk about this term, then it is worth highlighting the logical and physical consolidation. When it comes to the latter, the servers are moved to a common information center, and they can be presented on a computer network in the same way as before, that is, a number of network services are assigned to one physical server. Logical consolidation is a connection of server computing resources that can be implemented without moving them to a single network resource in the physical sense. At the moment, there is an urgent need for such an implementation. Thanks to this, you can manage a network of several physical servers, as if it were one single device.
Consolidation is a process in which it is worth creating a set of requirements that this procedure must meet in order for its use to be economically viable: for users, the application should not become less accessible; the style of work with the application should not change; information security should not worsen; at the same time, a significant reduction in the total cost of using the entire information system should be ensured.
The simplest consolidation is the merger of several companies with different information systems. In this case, thanks to this, it is possible to obtain significant cost savings due to the fact that duplicate elements are eliminated and existing resources are used as efficiently as possible. Another example is data consolidation, where the most important is the logical component that allows the central office to control the activities of branch information systems.
If you transfer resource-intensive applications to centralized servers, the cost of the workplace can be reduced, which can be realized through the use of cheaper computers to equip workstations on which a strictly fixed set of programs will run, the ideal option in this case is a browser. After combining the servers in a single information processing center , it allows not only to increase the degree of protection, but also to increase the degree of reliability of calculations. And here we are talking about both physical and network security. Each case allows you to use your own strategies and methods of consolidation, allowing you to optimize it. And for this case, there is a universal solution - virtualization, which allows you to change the logical and physical configuration of the system.
And the last significant moment is the consolidation of financial statements, which requires the interaction of different parts of the system to obtain data from various sources.