The Positive Impacts of Virtualization: IT Goes Green
There was a time, just a few years ago, when our organization had one physical server for each major enterprise application, which means we had one server for email, one for print services, and one for database services…I think you get the idea. In all we amassed a large number of physical servers.
In addition to the basic costs of maintaining and managing a large network of servers, each of the units requires 24/7/365 operating power. And, they have to be kept at a consistent temperature, which means additional power resources to cool both the processor(s) inside the housing as well as the physical data center. Maintaining all of these servers in a 24/7/365 environment at peak levels equated to an inordinate amount of aggregated power. That was so 2007…
Since that time we discovered VMWare, the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. VMWare released a series of server based products that allow an organization, like ours, to virtualize any number of physical servers into one single machine. Now, not only is all of our in-house technology housed on one physical machine that may be managed remotely, we also only have to power a single server.
While our decision to engage in server virtualization was based on the technical advantages, we also considered both the reduction in costs around the ongoing physical support in terms of power as well as the environmental impact of reducing our organizations’ carbon footprint. Now our data center rests at a comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the dedicated cooling system does not carry the substantial load required previously. After switching off all of the legacy on-premise servers, we realized a 37% reduction in electrical usage on a monthly basis.
Our new strategy provides us with enhanced client support, a reduction in overall management requirements, a reduction in overall costs, and we improve our social consciousness. If you’re considering moving to a virtualized environment, we recommend it!
Posted on 04/16/2009 in Technology | Comments (0)
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