An Old concept in the IT world seems to be surfacing again, an recent article at computer world focusses on Centralization of IT.

A quote from an old Oracle Presentation "By 2004 over 75% of IT organizations will have a consolidation initiative underway.-Meta Group, 2003"

Below are a couple of quotes/excerpts from the article, for the full article go here.

"Centralization will reduce costs for staffing and compliance. If you centralize infrastructure such as storage, then you can run software that assists with compliance efforts, access controls, backup and recovery. If storage is split into file servers all over the place, then it's impossible to know what data is where" says Andreas Antonopoulos, senior vice president at Nemertes Research in New York.

Economies of scale - "Everything is cheaper when you do it on a bigger scale such as server management and software licensing," Antonopoulos says.

Ian Finley, research director at AMR Research in Boston, agrees that the time for centralization is now. But he says the benefits go beyond cost reduction. "We see companies consolidating for competitive advantage and revenue growth. Today's initiatives require a more coordinated business and you have to centralize IT to achieve that goal," he says.

Before you begin your road to consolidation, consider these tips from industry experts.

1. Align your centralization plan with a business goal.
2. Communicate your centralization plan across the organization.
3. Budget for infrastructure improvements and network upgrades.
4. Create service level agreements with your users.
5. In the rush to consolidate, don't get rid of your brain trust.

Source: 1

Prashanth Rai