Just kidding -- I know how to sell them. It's not hard cuz everybody wants
one :) The real question is, I know I can sell 'em how do I charge for
'em?
So, here's the scenario: We're a government datacenter. Our customers are
government agencies. Currently, we are set up with the following:
1 9672x27 engine - (about 160 MIPS)
1 gigabyte of real storage
2 ESS Sharks
According to the Server Consolidation Red Paper I just read, the one that
discusses a capacity formula in terms of workload, we have the capability
of matching 30 - 40 Win/Sun web servers. This is assuming an average
utilization of less than 10% on the pc servers and at least 80% on the S390
VM/Linux system. Is this realistic? Are there any ways to boost the
numbers under our current configuration?
Are there any other datacenters out there with charging systems in place?
We're attempting to move away from the OS/390 billing model and into a
"charge by the server' one. One price for one server - small, medium or
large -- sort of like a Gateway pc lease program. (Of course, Gateway
can't offer built in networking, high speed legacy data access and Plug and
PLay server farm disaster recovery)
We're sort of stumped with the pricing scheme until we can figure out how
much we can realistically expect to handle with the resources we currently
have. Don't want to give away the farm but don't want to price ourselves
out of competition either.
Thank you for the help and ideas,
Matt Lashley
State of Idaho
