What is Virtualization?
Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent systems
on a single physical computer. It is
not a new idea: mainframes and microcomputers have been running
virtual environments
for decades. With increasing data center costs, rising consciousness
of the
need to improve efficiency and compute density, and an expanding
awareness of
sustainability in the IT setting, virtualization has come of age in
the volume server space.
Using virtualization software and technology, the hardware resources
of an x86-based server — including
the CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network controller — can be
partitioned into fully functional
virtual machines that can run their own operating systems and
applications.
Economic and environmental concerns fueled the development of
workable virtualization
software and technologies, and a host of add-ons that improve
management capability have made
virtualization a necessary consideration when seeking to optimize
efficiency in IT and data center
infrastructure. In addition to energy savings and lower capital
expenses due to more efficient
use of hardware resources, you can achieve high availability of
resources, increased security,
and improved disaster recovery processes when you integrate
virtualization into your infrastructure.
The Need to Virtualize.
It is estimated that the energy used in our nation's data centers
doubled between 2000 and 2006.
Under current trends, it is expected that energy use will double
again in the next five years.
One type of server, the volume server, is responsible for a majority
(approximately 68%) of the
energy usage in data centers today (see Figure 1: Volume Server Spending). While spending for servers has been increasing
slightly over the past five years, the increasing power in
x86-based volume servers, coupled with their low per-server
acquisition cost, has created a market in which volume server
unit purchases and deployment have rapidly outpaced all other
segments of the server market.1.
Among a variety of strategies that can be used to improve data
center efficiency,
virtualization is an important element for many organizations
in reaching
their sustainability goals. In the pages that follow, we have
collected and
summarized information about virtualization. We invite you to
review the
products into which we have
integrated virtualization
technologies, and also encourage you to review our information
on Sustainable Computing,
which presents a range of tactics that may be helpful in planning
and executing a Sustainable Computing strategy.
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