"The TCO analysis showed a 26% cost savings potential, and that’s a compelling business case," says Mr. Jim Stewart, Chief Financial Officer for Micronpc.com. "The ability of Windows 2000 Server to support best practices and to drive operational efficiencies within our organization definitely affects our bottom line. The flexibility of Windows 2000 Server gives us competitive advantage to react quickly to changing market demands."
Windows 2000 Server Can Reduce Systems Management Cost
The TCO analysis provided insight into the best practices (as defined by GartnerGroup’s TCO methodology) of Micronpc.com’s IT department. ENTEX identified that Micronpc.com could substantially improve its ratings in several key best practices that affect the areas of systems management and automation.
For example, the TCO analysis projected that Micronpc.com could achieve a 75% Medium rating in Server-based Client Image Control, which the GartnerGroup TCO methodology defines as "the ability for a desktop administrator to create a client specific configuration of applications, settings, and privileges on a server. These can then be automatically downloaded to a specific address or set of addresses on the network; therefore, configuring the clients initially, and ultimately standardizing the maintenance of configurations. A client agent is used to synchronize the server and client images for change management."
Using features built into Windows 2000 Server—such as Remote Installation Services (RIS), Group Policy, and Microsoft Software Installer (MSI)—the operating system, as well as a user’s suite of applications and machine configuration, can be centrally managed and automatically deployed. These Windows 2000 Server features make it the optimal platform of implementing best practices within an organization.
Improved Availability and Scalability Helps Improve Best Practices
The TCO analysis identified that due to improved reliability and scalability in Windows 2000 Server, Micronpc.com could achieve further cost savings by improving its IT best practices in Low Impact Upgradeability, Scalable Architecture, and Automated Backup and Restore.
For example, Windows 2000 Server Hierarchical Storage Management provides a two-level automatic storage system that moves the least-used files from disk storage to tape, thus reducing the amount of data to be backed up. The NTFS file system has also been improved and now uses a log to track changes. Backup programs can use the log to quickly determine which files have changed without scanning the entire file system, resulting in much faster backups. This makes it practical to back up more and larger devices on a more frequent basis.
Mr. Lewis Averill, TCO Consultant for ENTEX Information Services, notes "The TCO study for Micronpc.com validates that the design of Windows 2000 Server incorporates 'best practices' to reduce costs that can provide immediate financial benefits for business."
Improved User Management Equals Better User Efficiency
Windows 2000 Server makes it easier to manage users, thereby improving efficiency for both the IT department and end users, resulting in lower administrative and support costs.
The TCO analysis predicts that Micronpc.com can potentially achieve significant improvements by implementing IT best practices in Enterprise Policy Management, Data Security Management, and Application Standardization.
For example, Windows 2000 Server features such as Group Policy and IntelliMirrorTM management technologies closely map to the definition of Enterprise Policy Management. Using these technologies based on Organizational Units and Groups in the Active DirectoryTM service, Micronpc.com’s administrators can control as much or as little of a user’s configuration and application installation as required. Because this is user-based technology, a user’s profile can follow the user from machine to machine, thereby increasing administrative efficiencies and lowering IT costs.
Consolidating Servers Made Possible by Windows 2000 Server
For a hardware manufacturer such as Micronpc.com, acquiring servers and other hardware products manufactured in house isn’t a problem. The downside is that this can lead to a proliferation of hardware in excess of what might otherwise be needed to achieve optimum efficiency.
ENTEX consultants conducted extensive interviews with Micronpc.com’s IT staff and business department managers to determine whether Micron could reduce costs by consolidating servers. ENTEX discovered that a large number of "single-purpose" servers existed for the sole purpose of running a single application.
Because it is inherently faster and more reliable than previous versions of Windows NT Server, Windows 2000 Server makes it possible to safely and confidently run more than one application per server. Additionally, it has improved memory management, supports a larger memory maximum, and requires far fewer reboots during routine maintenance.
Given the reliability and scalability improvements in Windows 2000 Server, ENTEX forecast that Micronpc.com could easily run more than one application per server, and realize savings from a reduced number of application servers to support.
Micron Commits to Deployment Planning for Windows 2000 Server
Based upon the variable overall TCO savings of 17 to 26% projected by the TCO analysis, Micronpc.com is in the process of project planning for upgrading its entire corporate network to Windows 2000 Server.
According to Bruce Dunham, director of Information Technology at Micronpc.com, "The business case for upgrading to Windows 2000 is strong. The Gartner study gave us clear objectives for tuning our IT model to increase overall company productivity while reducing cost—both of which affect our long term growth as well as our current bottom line. We’re very excited to move forward with Windows 2000."
Software and Services
Active DirectoryTM
Group Policy
IntelliMirrorTM
Security
Remote Access Service
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Resource Centre at (800) 563-9048. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information via the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/
http://www.microsoft.com/tco
http://www.Micronpc.com/
http://www.entex.com/
http://www.gartner.com/
