Server to admin ratios

[jrr001]

I would like to inquire briefly if I may, in the server to admin ratios in your company, what they are (were) before virtualization, and what you think or see them doing after having implemented virtualization?

Doing some research for management.

Thanks

[grasshopper]

While this is a good question, and one that certainly should be asked by IT managers, it really is best to proceed with caution and not depend on the projected numbers or industry averages. Many great organizations loose valuable people in their aggressive push to meet such numbers in the fantasy world of virtualization. Attrition and internal reassignments are the best way to deal with the operational advantages afforded through consolidation.

With that said, the average admin:server ratio is typically between 1:10 to 1:30 for non-consolidated environments. Although many pre-consolidation figures are way higher (i.e. 1:100 or 1:1000). This is either because the IT staff is already drastically overworked or in google's case through extreme standardization (tens of thousands of identical servers).

See page 15 of the following VMware whitepaper that discusses the ratios based on application type and support level:

Improving_ROI[/url].

Notice I didn't give any post consol numbers, because I think that will vary greatly. I've seen many companies lay off 60% of their staff, just to hire more back at a premium a year later.

However, Gartner states that 70% of virtualization savings come from staff reductions, and IDC's John Humphrey boasts[/url] admin:server ratio increases from 1:20 (pre-consol) to 1:200 (post consol). While such numbers very well can and do happen, it's not something to bank on long term.

Just proceed with caution as there is no magic formula for determining the numbers you will get, or the intangible losses you may face through loss of knowledge capital, and customer satisfaction while staffing issues are ironed out.

Reality is though, usually after a tough year for everyone, the company has saved millions, the dead weight is gone, new opportunities have opened up for motivated internal staff, and the company rebuilds to accomplish great things.

Just one man's perspective on a not so simple question :smileysilly:

Hopefully others will chime in with what you "really" wanted to hear, some hard 'before' and 'after' numbers. Optional, but helpful data would include what percentage are (DEV, QA, and Prod) divided by the (# of VMadmins).

cheers and best of luck.

[mbrkic]

As grasshopper rightly points out, the admin ratio will vary greatly from case to case.

I think the biggest dependence is on the processes you implement around the virtual environment, and which of the features and possibilities you end up utilizing. It is arguable that, if you continue managing the virtual servers in the same way as you manage the physical servers, the admin ratio will even decrease, since you are still managing the same number of OS instances, plus you must manage the VI3 itself.

The management savings will come from things like:

i) ease of deployment (compare setting up a new server to 'popping' a VM)

ii) standardization of OS implementation (with templates)

iii) ease of change rollback (with snapshots)

Implementing virtualization is a paradigm change and its success depends greatly on the acceptance rate of the new concept among the admins and the management.

In addition, a lot of places end up with their Windows admins managing the VI3 from bottom up. This can lead to even more initial inefficiencies.

Just my two cents...

Message was edited by:

mbrkic

[bretti]

Sorry I can't give you a clear cut number, our admins are spread out between different groups. Over the last 8 years they have been consolidated into one group, split into multiple groups, and then back again. It's almost to unpredictable to give a solid number.

I can tell you this however. As your virtual environment grows you will have more servers to manage. That will require more admins. We now have one person dedicated to building new VMs and hosts. Another 2 people spend 70% of there time balancing the clusters, moving data, adding and removing resources. Several other admins pitch in when there is a back log.

If you are trying to justify more Admins, ratios will probably not be enough. You will really have to analyze what your team does and find some way to focus those members where they do best.

Drive towards standards and simplification and things will get easier. Stick with just a few server models, find your sweet spot for new servers, get your server build process documented if not automated. The fewer one off configurations you have the easier it will be to manage.

Hope that helps.

BTW... we have 12 server admins that manage 87 hosts and 438 VM's. We are in the process of justifying 7 more admins over the next year. Wish me luck... :smileyhappy:

[jrr001]

Wow everyone..thanks for the input. We know we are way understaffed with about 850 servers, only 5 admins, and about 250-275 of those virtual so far.

I am strongly wanting to specialize and do only Virtual stuff..which I think is needed strongly with all the changes in this very hot technology...and with just trying to keep up with everything that will be happening with virtual. Not to mention the patch cycles, hardware firmware upgrades, products that help with virtualization, keeping up with new server technologies that will work best for the farms, VDI, backup, and of course testing all this stuff in labs first.

I even see people, which I think VMware certification is going, specializing in specific areas such as security for the virtual envioronment, Networking/Storage, imaging and optimization, backup, planning and growth, documenting..etc.

Thanks again to all for any input.

[bretti]

Good luck trying to get more admins. Hope this info helps you out. You may also notice that your existing admins will need more skills, and they will be asked to do things they have not done before. Performance, SAN, and capacity seem to be the top three that always require attention. Try to justify on other things besides just the ratio.