An Overview of Virtualisation
The Benefits of Moving to a Virtualised Environment
‘Virtualisation is a priority’ and ‘Technology company sends server to back virtualisation’ may be some of the headlines appearing on leading technology websites, but what is virtualisation, and why is it being hyped as a cost saving and energy efficiency initiative?
A New Way Forward for Operating Systems
Virtualisation separates the physical hardware used by an organisation from the operating system, to deliver greater IT resource utilisation and flexibility. This method creates cost benefits for the organisation, by freeing up systems capacity and also improving processes and resource for use by more critical applications and processes.
The average server in a corporate data centre currently runs at only seven percent of its processing capacity, while using eighty percent of its maximum power. Virtualisation reduces this under-utilisation, as multiple servers can run on a single piece of hardware. This means companies can run the physical server at between eighty and ninety-five percent utilisation for the equivalent power, heat generation and space requirements of one or two single application servers. It provides a cost-effective and efficient method of conserving energy and space.
The Benefits of Virtualisation
The demand for servers has grown dramatically over the past ten years, as each IT application used by an organisation needs its own dedicated server. Once an organisation adds this to the huge amounts of power needed to run a successful operation, in addition to the heat generated and space required for these servers, virtualisation becomes an attractive option in terms of both conserving energy and reducing costs.
Virtualisation brings many benefits which deliver a highly agile service at a lower cost to many organisations:
- Greater flexibility to identify and rectify software errors in a timely and efficient manner The ability to implement offline hardware and software maintenance and upgrades with minimal disruption
- Significant reduction in lead time for new server upgrades and requirements
- A significant reduction in the orgnaisation’s hardware footprint, which reduces, for the first time, the physical space, power and cooling requirements of the company.
Leading Companies Adopting Virtualisation as an Efficient Way to Improve Processes and Increase Efficiency
There are a number of organisations in the United Kingdom that have already implemented a virtual infrastructure to consolidate their server estate, for example, British Telecom and Nationwide. Within the finance industry sector worldwide, there are a large number of global corporations using virtualisation, for example, AIG Technologies, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Prudential UK, Visa International and Zurich Life.
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