The temptation of full utilization

People are still talking about "full utilization", meaning the full use of hardware. Even today I see articles on the full utilization of server equipment.

Full utilization is the complete use of the equipment in your organization. Or, taking a different view, purchasing no more than what you need. If you purchase twenty servers but use them at only fifty percent utilization, then your could have purchased only ten servers. Instant savings! 

My thoughts on the notion of "full utilization" are: How quaint! How so nineteen-seventies! While you're at it, break out the disco music and wide lapels!

The notion of full utilization made sense when hardware was expensive. Back in the day, when companies leased time on mainframes with less capacity and power than today's typical smartphone, the idea made sense. Computing power was expensive, and you wanted to use what you paid for and no more. Companies even hired system administrators to tune their systems to keep them running at 95 to 98 percent utilization.

In today's world, we don't have to worry about utilization. Not in the nineteen-seventies sense of the word, at least. Hardware is cheap. I suspect that the purchasing process is more expensive that the server itself, with multiple levels of review and approval in most organizations.

Instead of targeting hardware, look at the overall costs. If you find that the bulk of your costs go to internal processes, then look there for improvements. Go for the biggest bang, the biggest savings.

Cloud computing is your friend in this effort. The cloud vendors are very good at billing for resources, and perhaps not so helpful at tuning your environment. They have little incentive to reduce the monthly bill. But they provide a scalable environment, one that can expand and shrink as you need. With the proper diligence, reporting, and planning, you can manage your hardware costs, yet still scale up when you need. That's what the cloud buys you.

Focus on the true expenses of you organization: people. People are the most expensive (and precious) of your resources -- if you stoop so low as to consider people "resources". Grow your people's skills and help them build their talents. That's where you will find the payback.