Consolidation of Data Centers in the Federal Government is certainly not a new topic. Federal agencies for some time have been "encouraged" to do "more with less" when it comes to their data infrastructures. Many drivers have contributed to this initiative, from financial to political to the latest - Green IT.

"Green IT" has gained some significant exposure in the market place recently. In both public and private sectors, IT products are increasingly trying to adhere to this new scenario. But the underlying driver of "Green IT" should be a familiar one to many in the data center markets as financial. While "Green IT" is important, the financial pitfalls from lack of action on consolidation are too great to ignore.

Some of the best methods associated with data center consolidation are especially effective in reducing energy costs and making your agency more eco-friendly. Three key solutions in this regard are:

• Server Virtualization - enables physical servers to operate at high utilization by creating multiple "virtual" servers within a single physical server.
• Storage Tiering - establishes a hierarchy of storage (performance, capacity, nearline) so that inactive or less critical data can be moved to less expensive storage tiers.
• Server Clustering - Significantly reduce the number of physical servers required to support high availability environments.

This document will outline how these solutions can help agencies achieve both business AND environmental goals.