Centrix Software has produced a free software calculator that lets IT managers improve their understanding of virtualised systems environments to uncover where operational efficiency gains could be made.
The software can be used to assess how server, application and energy cost savings can be achieved, and is based on a method that has been validated and then fine-tuned based on earlier assessments of 33,000 virtualised elements, Laurent Seraphin, a director at Centrix Software told us.
He explained that use of software asset management software only goes so far in this context. It does help, but focuses more on license compliance and not necessarily on how best to deliver an application or how much it costs to do so.
“Our tool does draw on some elements of asset management, and looks at the application spread or dynamics of its use,” he explained. “The tool will show often an application is called on by a user and its duration of use.”
He said the use of such a tool is a good place to start when organisations are considering moving applications off fixed clients and laptops to a virtualised desktop infrastructure (VDI) or application streaming environment.
It can be hard to determine which applications to deliver using VDI, he said and a first step should be to establish if users are mostly using business applications, or are chiefly hooked into email and browser, or if they are relying wholly on personal productivity software.
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The free Centrix WorkSpace ROI calculator can help companies see how their application and server estates can be optimised, he said, by mapping them into zones of maximum and minimum efficiency.
Centrix will offer a free follow-on proof of concept study to demonstrate the value of its process, saying that companies can stand to make savings of up to 40% in their virtualised environments, by increasing server density and rationalising application installs.
It said this is something that could be achieved by deploying Centrix WorkSpace, an application aggregation platform that enables companies to optimise meter the delivery of web services, virtual and local applications on a per user basis and apply various management metrics to application delivery.
“With Centrix WorkSpace, organisations can monitor and control how applications and services are being taken up across the business, and prove that their IT investments are generating real business value,” the Newbury-based company said.
