CASE STUDY
Setting the Pace
Challenge
Southern Company’s rapid business
growth had created server sprawl,
threatening to outstrip the available
Southern Company, the premier energy company serving
the southeastern United States, saves an estimated
US$1.3 million and sets an example for energy efficiency
using virtualized Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers to consolidate
its data centers.
data center space and driving up costs
by consuming more energy each year.
Intel® Xeon® processor 7300 series
A
enables the Southern Company IT team
national average while maintaining exceptional customer service. In fact, Southern
to save data center space, reduce costs,
Company has been listed as the top-ranking U.S. electric service provider for nine
and increase energy efficiency.
consecutive years by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Benefits
technologies that can increase efficiency and reduce costs. “As a power company,
Solution
Virtualizing and consolidating on Dell
PowerEdge R900 servers with the
tlanta-based Southern Company is the premier energy provider in one of
America’s fastest-growing regions, serving nearly 4.4 million customers
across the Southeast. Even as its customer base has expanded, Southern
Company has been able to keep its retail electric prices significantly below the
One of the secrets of Southern Company’s success is continually exploring new
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Virtualized Dell PowerEdge servers
we know that one of the best ways to hold down costs is through energy efficiency,”
enable up to 26:1 server consolida-
says Dan Traynor, IT infrastructure director at Southern Company. “We’re commit-
tion to help save data center space
ted to keeping our own house in order from a green perspective and providing
and improve resource utilization.
technology that can help our customers save energy as well.”
Consolidated Dell infrastructure helps
By establishing high standards for itself, Southern Company has helped set the
to avoid over 2 million kilowatt-hours
pace for energy conservation among the nation’s utilities. For example, Southern
of energy use, eliminate over 1,340
Company was one of the first to adopt automated metering infrastructure (AMI) on
tons of CO2 emissions, and save an
a large scale. The company is putting more than 4 million smart meters into the field
estimated US$1.3 million in capital
at homes and businesses throughout its service area, with over a million installed
expenditures for equipment.
to date. The meters send power usage information through radio towers to Southern
Virtualization helps automate the
Company’s data centers for processing. The company anticipates the program will
server build process and reduce
deliver huge benefits, as there is no longer a need to dispatch meter readers to
deployment time from more than a
businesses and residences where the AMI units have been installed. “When the
week for a physical server to one or
system is fully implemented, not only will we see significant labor savings, we also
two days for a virtual machine.
estimate we’re going to get about 500 vehicles off the road and save about
12.5 million miles of driving annually,” says Traynor. “That will contribute to cleaner
air, reduce energy use for travel, and lower our costs.”
Rapid business growth leads to server sprawl
Southern Company found one of the biggest opportunities to save energy and
reduce costs in its own data centers. Rapid annual business growth was causing
94
DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | September 2009
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, September 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
the Southern Company IT team to add
approximately 30 percent more servers
to its two main data centers each year,
resulting in a mounting problem of server
sprawl. Consolidation was difficult
because many of the IT team’s internal
customers required their own dedicated
servers, and concern about application
conflicts kept most business units from
sharing space on the same physical systems. “We needed to continually add
more servers, and at the same time we
weren’t able to fully utilize the resources
Virtualized Dell PowerEdge R900 servers have helped Southern Company
save dramatically on energy and hardware costs
we had,” says Traynor.
The Southern Company IT team real-
OS–based systems several years ago and
“We’re on a lease agreement for our serv-
ized that the pace of growth in the data
had a very positive experience. “Any time
ers and have a regular refresh cycle, so
center wasn’t sustainable. Although the
we’ve asked for advice in the past, the Dell
we were able to begin replacing them
team had not yet run out of space, they
team has been very knowledgeable and
right away,” says Traynor.
could see that problem coming if they
provided useful suggestions that helped
kept growing at the same rate. What also
us achieve our goals,” says Traynor.
The team decided to use Dell
PowerEdge R900 servers with the Intel
Xeon processor 7300 series to build a vir-
caught the team’s attention was the rising
tual server farm. The team had already
monthly bill we were paying our sister
Dell servers power
virtualization project
company, Georgia Power, was steadily
With help from Dell, the IT team decided
cations with high transaction volumes,
increasing,” says Traynor. “So was the
to virtualize and consolidate its data
and they were impressed by the servers’
environmental impact. When the company
center servers using VMware® ESX tech-
performance. “With four processors and
instituted a green data center program,
nology. The powerful partitioning pro-
16 cores each, we knew the Dell PowerEdge
we saw that we were consuming as much
vided by the VMware platform would help
R900 was powerful enough to host a
as 15 percent more kilowatt-hours and
eliminate application conflicts and enable
large number of virtual servers while
producing more of the corresponding CO2
servers to be shared. But the team also
ensuring fast server response for our
emissions every year.”
power usage. “With more servers, the
used PowerEdge R900 servers for appli-
determined that it would need more pow-
users,” says Traynor. “The R900 is also
The IT team decided to ask Dell for
erful servers to achieve a sufficiently high
more energy efficient than the servers we
ideas on optimizing the servers and reduc-
density of virtual machines. The Dell team
were replacing.”
ing server proliferation in the data centers.
recommended that Southern Company
The Southern Company IT team has
The company had standardized on Dell
replace its aging dual-processor servers
been able to place as many as 26 virtual
servers to power its Microsoft® Windows®
with a quad-processor architecture.
machines on each of the PowerEdge R900
“The new Dell servers have enabled us to create
approximately 390 virtual servers over a year and
a half, avoiding an estimated US$1.3 million in
capital expenditures for equipment.”
—Dan Traynor
Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, September 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
IT infrastructure director at Southern Company
May 2009
DELL.COM/PowerSolutions
95
CASE STUDY
servers. As a result, the team has eliminated hundreds of legacy physical servers,
“The efficiencies we’ve gained by
alleviating overcrowding and creating
consolidating on Dell contribute to
the company’s bottom line and
ultimately help keep electric rates low
for Southern Company customers.”
space in the data centers for future
growth. “The increased performance provided by the Dell servers enables high
consolidation ratios and gives us much
better utilization of our data center
resources,” says Traynor.
—Dan Traynor
Consolidation helps
save energy and costs
IT infrastructure director at Southern Company
May 2009
The reduced number of physical systems
and the energy efficiency of the Dell serv-
Traynor. “The efficiencies we’ve gained by
from Dell, we’ve been able to head off
ers has helped the Southern Company IT
consolidating on Dell contribute to the
potential data center space and power
team achieve big energy savings. As part
company’s bottom line and ultimately
supply problems,” says Traynor. “That
of the company’s green data center pro-
help keep electric rates low for Southern
gives us room to grow while saving energy
gram, the team has created a software
Company customers.”
and reducing costs.”
tool to aggregate all of the kilowatt-hour
The IT team can now deploy a new
Southern Company is still seeing rapid
savings and the corresponding CO2 emis-
virtual server in one or two days instead
growth in business demand, but only
sion reductions. “As a result of the virtu-
of spending more than a week to deploy
modest growth in data center power con-
alization, we avoided more than 2 million
a new physical server. “Virtualizing the
sumption year to year. “We still have
kilowatt-hours, worth approximately
data center enabled us to automate the
growth in our network, so we’re not seeing
US$200,000 over a period of a year and
server build process, and we’re also more
an actual drop in the monthly power bill,”
a half,” says Traynor. “We’ve eliminated
efficient because we don’t have to order
says Traynor. “But we certainly have
over 1,340 tons of CO2 emissions, which
a physical machine,” says Traynor. “By
slowed the rate of increase. Today the IT
have a significant impact on the environ-
configuring new virtual machines on the
department is down to single-digit growth
ment. That’s a pretty big deal.”
Dell servers, we can more easily keep up
in kilowatt-hours. Before, we were well
into double digits.”
Southern Company also saves money
with internal demand as the company
because consolidating on Dell servers
grows—which helps keep the business
helps reduce the need to purchase new
unit managers happy with IT.”
hardware. “The new Dell servers have
As an energy utility, Southern Company
is always looking for ways to use energy
more efficiently and to set examples for
its partners and business customers for
390 virtual servers over a year and a half,
Dell equips Southern
Company for future growth
avoiding an estimated US$1.3 million in
Traynor feels that the company is now
Virtualizing on Dell servers has been a
capital expenditures for equipment,” says
well equipped for the future. “With help
success on both counts.
enabled us to create approximately
achieving greater energy sustainability.
“We’ve eliminated over 1,340 tons of
CO2 emissions, which have a significant
impact on the environment. That’s a
pretty big deal.”
—Dan Traynor
96
IT infrastructure director at Southern Company
May 2009
DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | September 2009
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Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, September 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.