Conceptual Methods to Design Sustainable IT Infrastructures – Standardization, Consolidation, and Virtualization

Abstract

Constructing IT infrastructures as a part of the enterprise architecture is influenced by aspects like customer’s requirements, and scope of technology. Today in discussions of designing new or redesigning existing IT infrastructures you may recognize the aspect sustainability, too. In relation to sustainability the keyword “green IT” is mentioned. First of all, we clear the scientific context and take a closer look at green IT and the sustainability of IT infrastructures. In addition, we show that the conceptual methods standardization, consolidation and virtualization can be assigned to the field of green IT, and that they influence the IT infrastructure and its sustainability. We gave also a practical example with a case study of the SAP University Competence Center Magdeburg's data center. In this case study we observed that from 2003 till today it was possible to reduce the power consumption (- 74%) and increase the performance (+ 60%) by realizing standardization, consolidation and virtualization as well as using new generation of hardware elements, and cooling systems. In conclusion, we point out that it is advisable for designing IT infrastructures to evaluate methods regarding to their benefit for sustainable. We have shown that common methods, documented in literature, can have a share for increasing sustainable IT infrastructures.