Integrated Data Management Solutions February 2009

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects: Strategies that deliver ROI

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 2

Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Managing your application portfolio 4 Quantifying the business value of your applications 5 Consolidation and decommissioningwhat and why? 7 IBM Optim supports consolidation and decommissioning projects 11 What to consider in project planning 13 Typical project scenarios 17 IBM Optim delivers business value

Executive summary Organizations rely on a myriad of ERP, CRM, custom and packaged applica tions to collect and manage the critical business information that drives daily operations. As the business evolves, organizations often face the need to update older technology, consolidate and decommission applications and simplify the supporting IT infrastructure to eliminate redundancy and lower costs. As a recommended best practice, organizations need to evaluate application port folios regularly to determine whether their investment is delivering maximum business value. Weighing the costs and benefits of each application can help in deciding which applications should be maintained and which applications should be upgraded, replaced, consolidated or decommissioned. In many cases, the review, evaluation and decision process can lead to significant hardware, soft ware and maintenance cost savings, as well as improved operational efficiencies. For example, in cases where critical business data is scattered among several application instances, consolidation offers advantages in promoting consistency and improving efficiency. In cases where organizations have redundant or older technology that is no longer delivering business value, decommissioning offers advantages in removing a system, application, database or hardware platform from service, or retiring some combination of these resources, to lower infrastructure costs and mitigate operational risks. However in both of these scenarios, the question remains as to how organizations can ensure access to historical business data that must be retained.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 3

Incorporating database archiving as part of an overall integrated data manage ment strategy can facilitate consolidation and decommissioning projects and help ensure that business goals are reached. Database archiving enables IT executives to safely remove historical data from the application or system being consolidated or decommissioned, while keeping the data accessible. Archived data can be saved to a variety of storage media, based on its business value and access requirements. Integrated data management solutions that offer proven database archiving and retrieval capabilities allow organizations to improve data management and support the successful completion of application consoli dation and decommissioning projects. This white paper explains how an integrated data management strategy that includes the proven database archiving capabilities provided in the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution can help your organization increase the business value of your enterprise applications and simplify your IT infrastructure to garner significant savings. Managing your application portfolio Application portfolio management is a necessary step for organizations that want to maintain an agile operating environment and continually control costs. According to Forrester Research, portfolio disciplines are changing the way CIOs think about applications under maintenance and all work done in IT. Build-and-forget approaches to applications are giving way to the desire for full-portfolio views of strategic application information. Increasingly, corporate management is tapping information to help distinguish the applications that should be kept and modernized from those that must be replaced and retired.1

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 4

As a general rule, IT executives should work with application managers and business users to evaluate application portfolios on a regular basis. This approach makes sense in an environment that must continue to drive revenue opportunities and deliver superior customer service, while consistently managing costs. Quantifying the business value of your applications Your enterprise applications and information drive your business initiatives. The stakes are high. You make a substantial investment in managing and maintaining these applications, as well as their supporting databases and IT infrastructure. Periodically reviewing and quantifying the value of your application portfolio is an essential part of simplifying your IT infrastructure and controlling costs. Forrester Research states, The business only sees the tip of the iceberg in terms of IT work, but feels 100% of the spend. The least visible aspects of the IT budgetongoing operations and maintenanceconsume 67% of the IT budget. IT organizations need to streamline the portfolio, reduce waste and free resources for business innovation.2 Considering these statistics, the goal of the CIO and overall IT organization is to ensure that your enterprise applications are delivering maximum business value. By analyzing how business applications satisfy your operational and reporting requirements and by estimating your IT resource and application maintenance costs, you can decide which applications should be maintained and which applications should be upgraded, replaced, consolidated or decommissioned.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 5

Consolidation and decommissioning projectswhat and why? Consolidation and decommissioning projects often complement each other. By consolidating data and decommissioning (or retiring) redundant or legacy systems and applications, you can improve operations management and reduce costs across your IT environment, including hardware, software, network infrastructure, staff resources and more. Consolidation and decommissioning projects make good business sense when an organization wants to:
Consolidate one or more home-grown applications into a purchased ERP application. Consolidate and eliminate unsupported versions of applications or databases. Migrate an application from a high-cost operating platform to a lower-cost platform. Retire an application and eliminate redundant or obsolete systems from the enterprise infrastructure.

What are the benefits? Once data from similar business applications is consolidated and redundant applications are decommissioned, substantial resources are then reclaimed to support the applications that deliver the greatest business value. For example, a skilled DBA can redirect productive time toward implementing an ERP package, rather than maintaining a patchwork of data bases that support outdated legacy applications. When you rationalize your infrastructure, you also reduce its complexity and therefore reduce business risk. For example, by consolidating a dozen home grown general ledger applications into Oracle E-Business Suite Financials, you can provide business-critical support and reduce the risk of missing key processing deadlines, such as a month-end close.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 6

Why not move forward? If consolidation and decommissioning projects help save money and reduce risk, why not just move forward? Many organizations hesi tate to consolidate and eliminate redundant or obsolete applications because they fear losing access to the underlying application data needed to run the business, understand trends, market to customers and support decision making to meet revenue goals. In addition, organizations must continue to manage historical data to comply with governance and regulatory data retention requirements. When considering candidates for your consolidation and decommissioning projects, it is important to note that most, if not all, of the historical reference data managed in application production databases is rarely accessed. With some consolidation projects, it may not be cost-effective to move all historical data to the new application or platform. Moving large volumes of historical data consumes costly storage capacity and potentially degrades application performance. Similarly, with some decommissioning projects, there is the question of how to retain access to historical data once an application is removed from service. So, can you move forward with your consolidation and decommissioning projects while retaining access to your current and historical data? As a recognized best practice, database archiving offers a viable alternative.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 7

What should you look for in a viable archiving solution? To be successful, any consolidation or decommissioning project must include a database archiving solution with capabilities that support data retention compliance and provide fast access to information for audit and e-discovery purposes, without requiring access to the original application. Data retention requirements vary by industry and location, but commonly range from 7 to 50 years. To preserve the integrity of the historical data, you also need capabilities that allow you to:
Preserve the business context of the archived data. Provide access capabilities that ensure fast and easy retrieval for research and reporting, as well as audits and e-discovery requests. Implement appropriate storage strategies, based on business value and access requirements, to lower costs throughout retention periods.

Whats needed is a full-lifecycle integrated data management strategy that includes proven database archiving capabilities. IBM Optim supports consolidation and decommissioning projects The IBM Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions offer proven, integrated capabilities to manage enterprise application data from requirements to retire ment. Optim delivers better business outcomes, at lower cost, with less risk, while providing capabilities that scale across enterprise applications, databases, operating systems and hardware platforms.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 8

Specifically, the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution provides proven database archiving capabilities that enable IT organizations to archive and safely remove historical reference data from the application or system being consolidated or decommissioned. These capabilities provide the flexibility to move only the current data to the new/consolidated application, while managing historical data and keeping it accessible. Archived data can be stored cost-effectively to a variety of storage media, based on its business value and access requirements. Preserve historical data in its business context. Data retention regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Basel II and HIPAA, require companies to retain historical data in its original business context for specified periods of time. Using Optim, you have the capability to capture and remove subsets of related data that make up a logical business object, such as payments or policies. Typically, these business objects are associated with other reference details through database key relationships or by means of the relationships defined in the application business logic. Conceptually, a complete business object represents a historical point-in-time snapshot of a business transaction. For any given business object, Optims archive processing captures all related data, including transaction details, master or reference data and associated metadata, from single or multiple data sources and other application databases, and saves it to a secure archive. As a result, application data is preserved in its original and complete business con text and remains accessible for full-lifecycle data managementan essential requirement for consolidation and decommissioning projects.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 9

Provide on demand access to archived application data. Organizations must have the capability to retrieve archived historical data on demand. With Optim, you have options for locating and retrieving an entire archive or any desired portion of an archive, as neededno matter where it is stored. If necessary, you can restore archived data to an application database or separate platform. The destination database does not have to be the same type, version or even the same platform as the originating database. Because archive processing preserves the complete business object, archived data can always be retrieved and restored in its business contextregardless of the data model. Organizations must also consider how to access archived historical data after the originating application is retired from service. Optim provides a consistent method for reporting on historical records, regardless of the application, version or platform where the data was originally managed. With Optims application-independent access, you can rely on industry-standard methods, such as ODBC/JDBC, XML or SQL, and reporting tools, such as IBM Cognos or SAP Business Objects to access archived historical data. With capabilities to query, browse and generate reports, you can respond quickly and accurately to audit or e-discovery requests.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 10

Implement cost-effective tiered storage strategies. By definition, archived historical data from consolidated and decommissioned applications is accessed less frequently than current application data, until its retention period expires. By implementing database archiving and storage strategies that meet accessibility requirements, companies can reduce the cost of managing and storing data, while supporting compliance initiatives. Optim supports managing archived data on a variety of low-cost storage media. As the business value of application data diminishes, it makes sense to move that data from high-speed, high-cost storage systems to less-expensive storage media. Implementing a tiered storage model for your archived application data allows you to reduce costs and reclaim high-performing storage infrastructure for current business-critical needs (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Optim supports tiered storage strategies for managing archived data.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 11

In either the consolidation or decommissioning scenario, you may chose to deploy tiered archives to a near-line (SAN or NAS) storage environment for an initial period and ultimately migrate that data to offline storage and finally to inexpensive tape or disk-based WORM (Write Once, Read Many) devices. Storing archived application data on a WORM device prevents it from being altered or accidentally deleted. You can manage the data according to defined storage timeframes, ensuring that the data remains accessible for inquiry and reporting purposes. What to consider in project planning The key to any successful consolidation or decommissioning project is careful planning and assessment. Before initiating your project, it is critical to obtain input and consensus from all groups involved. Each group will have different requirements. Business users may anticipate heavy access requirements and want to ensure that data is easy to retrieve or restore for additional processing. Audit and compliance officers want to ensure security, timely access and appro priate disposal to support corporate compliance initiatives. And IT executives want the best solution that minimizes costs, infrastructure complexity and operational risks. It is important to manage your companys application portfolio in a way that addresses the critical needs of each business group.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 12

Before you start the project, you should consider the:

Business value of the application, database, platform or system Ways in which the data will be used Degree of interoperability and redundancy Costs and risks associated with continued operation Costs and risks associated with migrating, consolidating or decommissioning an application, database, platform or system

In addition, you must also consider the application data, which remains a valuable business asset even after the original application is no longer in use. Senior managers and business users need to determine not only what business records require frequent access, but even more importantly, who will be accessing the information and how they will want to view or use it. Companies typically approach this challenge in a number of ways. Some restrict access to a smaller number of power users who perform queries and answer questions for the larger business user community. Others create a temporary interface to make end users feel more comfortable. Once you have completed the planning phase and considered each departments needs, you can begin your consolidation or decommissioning process.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 13

Typical project scenarios As mentioned earlier, application consolidation and decommissioning projects complement each other. Database archiving supports both of these projects in providing a way to manage historical data and keep it accessible, even after applications are consolidated or taken out of service. Consolidating, replacing or migrating applications. Whether you are consolidating data from multiple application instances, replacing one or more applications with another or migrating an application from one operating environment to another, the application consolidation and migration scenario is more complex and costly to perform than the decommissioning scenario; however, it is much more common. Using database archiving when replacing or migrating an application allows you to achieve a significant return on investment; speed the migration of data to the new application, database or hardware platform; and eliminate the risk of data loss. For example, you may replace a custom-developed insurance underwriting system with a new vendor package to take advantage of new functionality and reduce maintenance costs. First, the data from the application you want to consolidate or replace must be mapped for migration to the new application or platform that will now manage that data. Next, Optim can be used to archive the historical legacy data, such as information about inactive clients and closed claims. Archiving historical data reduces the amount of data to migrate to the new application environment, making the process faster and less costly. After archiving is

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 14

completed, the remaining current data, such as active clients and policies, can be migrated to the new application environment using an ETL or data migration tool. Finally, the original application or platform can be safely removed from service. Decommissioning or retiring a complete system or application. In the application decommissioning scenario, the entire application database is archived and no data is migrated to a replacement application. Using Optim, you have the option to archive the application data in a single process, or you can perform a series of data transformations before storing the archived data. For example, you can convert an Adabas database to IBM DB2 before archiving. In either case, you must designate authorized users who will have access to the archived data to fulfill an audit or compliance request. Decommissioning takes place once any necessary transformations are com plete and the database has been archived. Using Optim can help you achieve the full cost-reduction benefit of decommissioning, without risking data loss. Users can still view or query the archived application data and selectively restore as needed. Consolidation improves operational efficiency and reduces costs. After a merger, an international banking firm decided to maintain versions 7.7 and 7.8 of their Siebel CRM applications and re-evaluate the decision to consolidate after one year. During that time IT staff monitored system operating costs, as well as license and maintenance fees and realized that consolidation offered considerable cost savings per year.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 15

The IT staff also coordinated with application managers and business users to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the functionality provided in each older Siebel version, compared with the new features offered in version 8.0. Within the year, they determined that it would be more beneficial to users and more cost effective to consolidate and migrate their Siebel data to version 8.0 to be managed on an IBM DB2 database. Because Siebel CRM had been implemented for over 10 years, the DB2 and Oracle databases that supported the earlier Siebel versions each contained well over 10 terabytes of current and historical data. It was estimated that about 40 percent of that data had to be saved for at least 7 to 15 years as historical reference data to comply with data retention requirements. To begin the consolidation project, the IT staff and business users determined which data to archive from the Siebel versions 7.7 (Oracle) and 7.8 (DB2) using the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution for Siebel CRM. The targeted data included closed customer accounts and all related transac tion details for the past five to seven years. They then mapped the current data in the existing Siebel versions to the new installation of Siebel 8.0. Using an effective ETL tool and custom-developed routines to extract, transform and load current data, they were able to migrate current data from the source Siebel versions to the new Siebel 8.0 installation supported by the DB2 database. Migrating only current data to the new environment minimized the amount of time needed to complete the process.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 16

The consolidation process effectively resulted in a considerable return on investment. After several months, the IT staff continued to monitor performance of the new Siebel 8.0 installation and found that they have been able to sustain targeted service levels. Ongoing database archiving and managing only current data in the production environment has helped improve Siebel operational efficiencies and availability. Decommissioning offers significant savings. A leading direct mail company selected Oracle E-Business Suite as its ERP application of choice to support current and future business growth. The decision to sunset the mainframe environment made sound business sense; the company expected to achieve an annual savings of US$6 million per year. However, with 34 mainframe applications and reliance on DB2, IBM VSAM and sequential files, the company had accumulated vast amounts of applica tion data. Data retention policies stated that these historical records needed to be retained for 10 years. Adding to the challenge, the Oracle E-Business Suite environment was growing at a rate of 30 percent annually, increasing the time, risk, cost and effort required for any future upgrades. Clearly, the company needed several key integrated data management capabili ties. First, to support the mainframe decommissioning initiative, they needed to archive, manage and store mainframe data cost-effectively. Next, they needed capabilities to access and report against the archived data, retaining it in an audit-ready format for compliance purposes. Finally, to support their Oracle E-Business Suite initiative, they needed capabilities to archive historical data. Using archiving to control data growth would significantly improve any future upgrades. Optims integrated data management capabilities met all of these requirements.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 17

The company achieved outstanding business value with a savings of over US$2 million in projected five-year IT capacity expansion costs. It also achieved savings of US$6 million in hardware infrastructure and software licensing by sunsetting the mainframe applications. Additional benefits included annual productivity improvements derived from increased availability and measured improvements in application response time and batch-cycle run times. Taking control of application data growth also made it possible to reduce the cutover time to move from Oracle 10.7 to 11i, a significant improvement from past upgrades. IBM Optim delivers business value Organizations invest millions in their enterprise applications and the supporting infrastructure. Periodically reviewing your application portfolio can help you identify underperforming or redundant systems, where the costs associated with continued maintenance outweigh business value. By consolidating or decommissioning these applications and systems, you can optimize your portfolio, reducing cost and risk. IBM Optim Integrated Data Management solutions support a scalable, modular data management framework designed to increase organizational productivity. Organizations can also look forward to improving the quality of service, lowering the cost of ownership and supporting the governance of data, databases and data-driven applications.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 18

As one of the solutions in the Optim portfolio, the IBM Optim Data Growth Solution offers a value proposition that significantly lowers your total cost of ownership by optimizing your companys multimillion dollar investment in your mission-critical applications and databases:
Deploy a single, comprehensive enterprise archive solution to solve the problem of database growth across all applications in the enterprise. Maintain acceptable service levels by minimizing production database searches and improving response time. Reduce database maintenance time, reduce the downtime for application upgrades, and shorten batch process windows to increase application and database availability. Defer capacity upgrades and the associated expensive hardware and software license fees. Store archived data on a variety of cost-effective storage media and retain easy access to archived data no matter where it is stored. Speed disaster recovery time by hours or days by keeping only business-critical data in production databases.

Optim supports all leading enterprise databases and operating systems, including
IBM DB2, Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM Informix,
IBM IMS, IBM VSAM, Teradata, Adabas, Microsoft Windows, UNIX,
Linux and IBM z/OS. In addition to providing data management support
for all custom and packaged applications, Optim supports the key ERP and
CRM applications in use todaySAP applications, Oracle E-Business Suite,
PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Siebel and
Amdocs CRM.

Application consolidation and decommissioning projects Page 19

IBMs Software Lab Services team provides comprehensive project planning, execution and onsite support, enabling clients to consolidate or decom mission redundant or obsolete applications using Optims proven database archiving capabilities. About IBM Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions IBM Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions offer proven, integrated capabilities to manage enterprise application data from requirements to retirement. With Optim, teams can share data artifacts (like models, policies and metadata) to align data management with business goals and improve collaboration. Today, organizations of all types leverage Optim to improve performance, streamline database administration, speed application devel opment and enable effective governance. Optim delivers better business outcomes, at lower cost, with less risk, while providing capabilities that scale across enterprise applications, databases and platforms. For more information To learn more about IBM Optim Integrated Data Management Solutions, contact your IBM sales representative or visit: ibm.com /software/data/ optim-solutions

 Copyright IBM Corporation 2009 IBM Software Group

111 Campus Drive
Princeton, NJ 08540-6400
U.S.A. www.optimsolution.com Produced in the United States of America
February 2009
All Rights Reserved

Develop Metrics Thoughtfully To Streamline Application Portfolios Successfully, Forrester Research, Inc., July 23, 2008. Use Action-Oriented Categories To Guide Application Life-Cycle Investment Decisions, Forrester Research, Inc., October 17, 2008.

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Cognos, DB2, IMS, Informix, Optim, VSAM and z/OS are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries or both. Microsoft, Windows and SQL Server are registered
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States, other countries or both.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Other product, company or service names may be
trademarks or service marks of others.
References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates or does business. Offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. All statements regarding IBM future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

IMW14038-USEN-01