Virtualizing the SAP Infrastructure through Grid Technology WHITE PAPER March 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Introduction 3 The Complexity of the SAP Landscape 3 Specific Pain Areas 4 Virtualizing the Infrastructure with Grid 4 Impact of United Devices Data Center One 5 Key Solution Benefits 7 Reduced Cost of Ownership 7 Increased Capacity to Meet SLAs 7 Increased Scalability, Agility and Responsiveness 7 Ease of Management and Maintenance 7 Conclusion 8 For more information 8 2
Introduction As data center management costs continue to strain budgets, companies are turning to server consolidation and provisioning standardization as ways to mitigate problem areas such as server sprawl, long system deployment lead times and space, power, and cooling pressures. But when it comes to driving down total cost of ownership (TCO) and gaining an infrastructure that can scale with the business, these steps tend to fall short on the full promise of what is often called the next generation data center. With SAP as its flagship reference, United Devices fulfills this promise by virtualizing the application infrastructure, reducing significantly the numbers of servers required and corresponding TCO. But the solution goes beyond cost savings to create infrastructure capabilities that can dynamically and automatically support higher order application-based SLAs. The Complexity of the SAP Landscape For a typical SAP customer, the implementation landscape consists of a large and growing number of dedicated servers spread across multiple applications (e.g., ERP, CRM, SCM), each of which may consist of multiple modules (e.g., Financials, MRP, Inventory). In addition, multiple production, test, failover, staging, and training instances typically exist for a single application or module requiring multiple tiers (e.g., web, application, database) of servers in support. Application 1 Application 2 Web Servers Web Servers Application Servers Application Servers Database DB Database DB DB, Apps DB, Apps Storage Area Network Figure 1: SAP configuration before grid-enablement 3
This proliferation of servers results in infrastructure complexity; power and cooling challenges; and increased labor costs. In addition, the complexity of the infrastructure places a significant burden on IT departments, who must keep the wide array of systems administered and up-to-date. The result is that the infrastructure required to run SAP carries a high TCO including considerable capital and labor costs. In addition, because individual servers are typically sized to handle peak workloads, the expensive infrastructure supporting the implementation is consistently under-utilized. Specific Pain Areas The extensive number of servers necessary to support an SAP installation can create multiple pain points that any next-generation data center solution must address including: High Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) caused by virtual and physical server sprawl; inefficient use of resources; low system utilization; power, space, and cooling issues; and the large number of expert resources required to manage a complex SAP system Inability to meet end-user and application demands on the infrastructure resulting from business growth, frequent changes in the application, competitive pressures, new projects, or processing volatility. Lack of seamless scalability, agility, and responsiveness because the hardware environment is pre-provisioned, making it difficult to repurpose resources to handle increased demand Manageability and maintenance issues due to complexity and process inconsistency across the SAP infrastructure Data centers are tackling these challenges in a variety of ways, including server consolidation, provisioning standardization and automation, virtual machine adoption, process re-engineering, and more. Each initiative has met with varying levels of success in driving down costs related to SAP, but there are greater savings still available, and the data center remains far from responsive to changing business demands such as growing transaction loads, application upgrades, or new applications. Data centers are tackling current challenges in a variety of ways, but there are still opportunities for cost savings and greater responsiveness. Virtualizing the Infrastructure with Grid With the United Devices virtualization solution Data Center One for SAP, applications and databases are grid-enabled, allowing them to take advantage of a virtual pool of shared servers. The servers, whether virtual or physical, that are automatically provisioned according to scalability, availability, service level agreement (SLA) requirements, policy definitions and other factors. Individual servers can support multiple SAP applications; likewise, individual applications may span multiple servers in the pool. This decreases the number of servers, increases server utilization, allows easy, planned maintenance and enables faster provisioning of new servers into the environment. The capacity of an application can scale simply by adding servers to the pool. 4
Application 1 Application 2 Shared Pool of Web Servers Freed Resources UD Data Center One Solution Shared Pool of Application Servers Allocated Dynamically to Application(s) DB DB Database Database DB, Apps DB, Apps Storage Area Network Figure 2: SAP configuration after grid-enablement This scenario results in high availability of resources and greater scalability. Additional servers are dynamically and automatically identified, scheduled, and provisioned to address excessive loads on a particular application server, for instance. Once the load reduces on the primary application server, Data Center One frees the server returns back into the pool. Thus, the solution effectively handles spikes in demand as well as load. The new environment also addresses the practice of having dedicated resources for load balancing and failover. The grid-enabled solution identifies the load on each production server and dynamically migrates a new instance to the server pool if the load on the primary server goes beyond a specified limit. The grid also addresses failover requirements and constantly monitors both the load on each server and the status of each machine. Any machine coming down is immediately detected, and the instance is immediately migrated to another machine in the server pool. Impact of United Devices Data Center One In creating this dynamic and scalable pool of shared resources, the Data Center One solution resolves many of the implementation issues by offering improved resolution methods. 5
SAP Implementation Issue Lack of scalable platform for SAP application servers Low utilization on highavailability systems Sluggish system performance due to large number of concurrent users and large database size Over- or underutilization of hardware Static environment which makes it impossible to cost-effectively utilize resources Weeks to months for manual server provisioning especially in large IT shops Unplanned downtime which negatively impacts business Traditional Resolution Method Application servers are dedicated to a single SAP application or environment, each of which is sized to meet peak or fixed demand. The system is designed to handle failures by explicitly adding dedicated, high availability servers, which remain idle under normal circumstances. SAP systems are sized to handle peak demand, which can be measured in terms of number of concurrent users. This is either estimated conservatively or some performance degradation is accepted. Some portions of the infrastructure may be overutilized and others underutilized based on previous application demands, resulting in a poor ROI. Hardware resources are not shared across different applications or environments, resulting in poor utilization. The time at which increased demand is first observed to the time new hardware is provisioned to meet that demand can be measured in months. Downtime can cause significant losses in productivity, profits, and revenue. Impact of Data Center One Application servers form shared pools from which capacity can be scaled dynamically based on application demand. This results in an overall reduction of application servers as well as a more automated, streamlined system. Failover is handled naturally, eliminating the need for additional high-availability servers. SAP systems are sized to handle average demand measured in terms of concurrent users. When the number of users increases, new servers are immediately provisioned to handle the additional demand. Hardware utilization is continuously monitored and optimized, so peaks and valleys in utilization are smoothed to map directly to actual demand. Quality of service is guaranteed for all applications sharing a common resource pool. The server provisioning cycle is almost instantaneous Data Center One monitors application performance and can automatically provision new resources as needed to ensure demand is met. Delivery can continuously be reallocated or repurposed, resulting in greatly improved responsiveness. 6
Key Solution Benefits Reduced Cost of Ownership In 2006, Satyam Consulting Services produced a benchmark study showing the impact of United Devices Data Center One on a typical mid-range SAP implementation. The typical SAP landscape was defined as including silos for ECC, SCM, SRM, CRM and BW applications with production, testing, and development servers for each. In total, this mid-range implementation required 218 servers, and the total costs per year associated with operating this infrastructure was estimated at US $16.48 million. Virtualizing the SAP infrastructure with Data Center One resulted in far fewer servers being required. The same implementation with production, testing, and development servers for all applications reduced the number of necessary servers from 218 to 116 and provided a savings of $5.9M in the first year alone. Overall, the Data Center One solution reduced the total number of servers by 45% and total cost of ownership of the SAP infrastructure by 35%. Increased Capacity to Meet SLAs With a Data Center One-based SAP virtualization solution, capacity allocates to applications on demand, so services can scale seamlessly with demand and provide greater flexibility. In this scenario, the application and its needs drive resource provisioning, so policy-based SLA performance is assured. In addition, the entire infrastructure of the SAP landscape is optimized by sharing demand across all available servers. Increased Scalability, Agility and Responsiveness Because Data Center One virtualizes the solution software components (SAP application and database instances), work executes on any node, enabling resources to scale dynamically out, up, and down within the server pool. In addition, by virtualizing SAP application and database instances, IT can add servers dynamically to the pool; hence jobs can run on any node within their corresponding server pool. This high level of automation enables business to become more agile in reacting quickly to changing business demands, rather than having to wait on manually-based processes. Data Center One from United Devices has been shown to reduce the number of servers in a typical SAP implementation by up to 45%. Ease of Management and Maintenance A Data Center One-based SAP virtualization solution can simplify management and maintenance of the SAP implementation by providing consistency across the infrastructure. In addition, efficiency is increased and risk is reduced by enforcing best practices and simplifying training. With a more simplified, consolidated, and efficient IT environment that includes fewer assets to manage, expert staff have more time to dedicate to strategic, value-added initiatives. 7
Conclusion Virtualizing the infrastructure of business critical applications like SAP addresses multiple pain points associated with costly and complex enterprise software implementation landscapes. By reducing the total number of servers required to support SAP or other mainstream data center applications, Data Center Onebased virtualization lowers TCO, enables greater business and IT agility, and ensures SLA-based application delivery providing a comprehensive approach to moving towards the next-generation data center. For more information United Devices can perform a custom ROI analysis to determine the potential server reduction and cost savings of a grid-enabled solution for your data center environment. To request an analysis, please call 800-370-5230 or email learnmore@ud.com. United Devices (UD) provides the most cost-effective and flexible computing capacity available anywhere. The company's grid and infrastructure management solutions address a range of business needs, from traditional application acceleration to enterprise-scale infrastructure virtualization. UD products extend, manage, and optimize IT environments by reducing complexity, leveraging both dedicated and non-dedicated resources and establishing centralized control. UD solutions are proven to enhance innovation and reduce total cost of ownership for companies in a wide range of industries including Manufacturing, Energy, Life Sciences, Government, and Telecommunications. Find out more at www.ud.com. 8