OPM in each VM equivalent to that of the HP ProLiant DL385 solution. The total number of VMs the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution could handle determines the replacement factor. Based on our specific workload, the replacement factor is seven. Figure 1 depicts this replacement factor for replacing seven AMD Opteron 254- based HP ProLiant DL385 solutions with a single Intel Xeon Processor X5550-based Dell PowerEdge R710 solution, as well as the initial investment payback time of under 18 months.

Figure 2 graphs the payback period and the cost savings of the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution. Savings continue after the initial investment payback period. By the end of year two, we project a savings of $16,268. The line representing the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution accumulates the initial investment cost and the monthly costs of the solution. The initial investment cost includes the list price of the server and half of the cost of the shared storage, as well as the costs of migrating from the seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions to the newer Dell PowerEdge R710 solution. The line for the seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions shows the accumulated monthly costs of seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions. The lines cross at the end of the payback period. Appendix C describes the payback period calculation.

Dell PowerEdge R710 solution can pay back the initial investment in under 18

months

$140,000

$120,000

$100,000

 

Breakeven at

$46,680

 

 

 

 

savings at 3 years

$80,000

 

$60,016

 

 

 

in 17.6 months

 

$44,557

 

$60,000 initial investment

 

$16,268

 

 

 

$40,000

 

 

savings at 2 years

 

 

 

$20,000

 

 

 

$0

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

 

 

 

Seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions

Dell PowerEdge R710 solution

 

 

 

Payback period

Initial investment

 

 

 

2nd year savings

3rd year savings

Figure 2: The payback period and cumulative estimated costs1 for the seven HP ProLiant DL385 solutions and the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution with VMware ESX. Lower costs and higher savings are better.

Costs for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution include the initial investment of $44,557 plus annual costs of

$10,552, for a total year-one and -two cost of $65,660 for the solution. This solution could save approximately $16,268 by year two over the $81,928 two-year costs for the seven HP ProLiant DL385 servers and HP StorageWorks MSA30 storage arrays that this solution can replace. Figure 3 shows the specific areas of savings. Specifically, it shows that the investment costs of buying the server and storage hardware and of migrating from the older to the newer solution are offset by savings for the Dell PowerEdge R710 solution in hardware support costs, software licenses, software support agreements, facility costs (including switch costs), energy costs, and management costs.

1 We divide annual costs by 12 and do not adjust for inflation.

Principled Technologies, Inc.: Initial investment payback analysis: Dell PowerEdge R710

2

solution with VMware ESX vs. HP ProLiant DL385 solution