Kapil Bakshi
Chief Solutions Architect, Cisco Systems Inc.

Optimization definitely relates to the consolidation effort. Consolidation is one of the first steps to get to an optimized data center. The Obama administration, through the consolidation memo, is on the right path to getting all of the federal agencies moving towards optimized data centers. At least in our view you get consolidation, then optimization, then you go to some kind of cloud or automated service creation and delivery state. So, yes, they are very related.

Consolidation and optimization are certainly not the same thing, but they are part of the same spectrum of what’s needed for the data center. But to get to that higher level of the optimized state you have to start with consolidation. You can’t have the kind of asset sprawl and low utilization that you have now in data centers and expect to achieve optimization with that.