Application consolidation can be applied to many different areas of a business, such as production, logistics, maintenance, quality control, human resources, and accounting. For example, in a manufacturing setting, a consolidated system could integrate data from production lines, inventory management systems, and maintenance schedules. This would allow for greater visibility into the entire production process, enabling managers to make more informed decisions and identify areas where improvements can be made.
In logistics, application consolidation can be used to streamline the flow of goods and materials through the supply chain. By integrating data from shipping, tracking, and inventory systems, it is possible to gain real-time visibility into the status of shipments, track inventory levels, and plan for any potential disruptions. This can help to improve delivery times, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency.
Another potential area for application consolidation is in maintenance, allowing for improved tracking and scheduling of equipment maintenance, leading to reduced downtime and improved equipment performance.
In addition to the operational benefits, application consolidation can also provide benefits in terms of cost savings, by reducing the need for multiple licenses and support contracts for different systems, and by improving the overall security of data by centralizing it in one location.
For successful consolidation, a detailed plan should be in place that addresses the technical requirements and goals of the consolidation, as well as the necessary business process changes to support it. The plan should also include a testing and validation phase before implementing the new system to make sure everything is working as expected.
When consolidating workloads, engineers must take into consideration several factors such as bandwidth capability, logical isolation, and platform requirements to design a platform that ensures operational success. Bandwidth capability is important as individual workloads have peak bandwidth requirements during their lifecycles and the platform must be able to support the sum of the peak bandwidths for all workloads being consolidated. Logical isolation is also important as some applications may need total logical isolation (partitioning) from each other to guarantee that no other application on the system interferes with its execution and address space. Platform requirements must also be considered as the platform must accommodate the consolidated storage and power requirements of all applications. Comprehensive testing and validation coverage are also necessary to ensure that the parameters of the applications' workload requirements, the platform features, and the environment in which the platform runs are not violated.