With businesses constantly striving for improved efficiency, both in terms of the operational structure and the technology they deploy, server consolidation remains high on the agenda for many IT departments.

Server consolidation involves combining workloads from separate machines or applications into a smaller number of systems of applications.

The practise developed in response to the problem of server sprawl, where many servers were being found to be under-used, plus take up more space and use more resources than was justifiable.

Many IT companies involved in server consolidation promise to boost utilisation of existing hardware, helping businesses to make better use of their data centres.

Kenneth Hess, writing for Serverwatch, has said that server consolidation is popular with businesses because it saves money on multiple fronts.

Cutting down the number of servers means fewer service contracts, a reduction in cooling requirements, less power consumption and fewer staff to maintain systems, he explained. It also means that less rackspace is used and less floor space is used.

Businesses turn to server consolidation as a means of maximising return on investment in data centres. Another consideration when it comes to data centres is that building costs are likely to go up over time, along with tax rates and worker salaries. More efficient and fewer data centres therefore help to mitigate these external factors.

Demand for storage capacity is increasing generally, which also makes server consolidation an enticing prospect. Recent research by IDM found that enterprise demand for storage capacity around the world continues to rise at a compound annual growth rate of over 43 per cent between 2008 and 2013.

Businesses and governments are having to reduce the complexity and cost of storing and protecting vital information, which is resulting in spending on storage experiencing the fastest growth in the technology hardware sector in the US this year.

Linked with this is the increasing popularity of data de-duplication, which, according to a recent survey of chief information officers by Morgan Stanley Research, is the top spending priority for this year as clients seek ways to stop redundant data from growing out of control.

Having said that, not all analysts agree that reducing storage into one single server is the best way forward. Gartner research has found that a converged data centre network requires more switches and ports, is more complex to manage and consumes more power and cooling than two well-designed, separate networks.

"The industry is abuzz with the promise of a single converged network infrastructure, this time in the data centre core," said Joe Skorupa, research vice president at Gartner.

He continued: "The promise that a single converged data centre network would require fewer switches and ports doesn't stand up to scrutiny."

"This is because as networks grow beyond the capacity of a single switch, ports must be dedicated to interconnecting switches," Mr Skorupa explained.

"In large mesh networks, entire switches do nothing but connect switches to one another. As a result, a single converged network actually uses more ports than a separate local area network and storage area network.

"Additionally, since more equipment is required, maintenance and support costs are unlikely to be reduced."

Gartner also said that there were "significant design and management issues to be addressed". When two networks are overlaid on a single infrastructure, the complexity of the system increases, it explained. Debugging problems are also made more difficult to resolve.

However, Mr Skorupa said that there are benefits in standardising data centre networking if the technology used adequately supports the needs of the applications.

Does server consolidation improve efficiency?