Classifying consolidation
Logical consolidation
This process involves bringing all system and applications up to the same level. This will ease consistent policies to apply patches and perform system and applications upgrade across the whole environment.
Physical consolidation
Physical consolidation focuses on the concentration of all servers in a single data center - or in a small number of locations. Physical security is thus improved and maintenance simplified.
Storage consolidation
Smaller storage units can be replaced by faster and larger ones. SANs (Storage Area Networks) can be useful to concentrate data in single storage farm, with benefits in terms of utilization, reliability, data integrity and maintenance. Backup and restore mechanisms may result more efficient as well.
Server consolidation
This involves the replacement many individual servers with a smaller number of more powerful ones. This process may naturally lead to logical, physical and storage consolidation.
