Virtualization Can Save the Nation

Anyone remotely involved in IT at least knows whatin) server consumes only 435 Watts and the larger
virtualization can do for their company, but let meserver is 850Watts. Now when you figure in the
speak to those in management roles or those thatphysical to virtual ratio, you can see that the larger
are in charge of budgets or have just crawled outserver will save you thousands. Ten virtual servers
from under their rock and decided to stay out, thaton the larger server will still be only 850 Watts. Ten
sunlight isn't that scary after all. Let's take a fewphysical 1U servers will be 4350 Watts. Not only do
moments to explain how big of an impactyou have the huge savings on the power used by
virtualization can have on your IT staff, your budget,the servers, but also on the cooling. It will take much
your company and yes, even the nation.less power to cool a virtual server farm than it will a
So let's start with the basics; what is virtualization?physical one. The typical ROI (return on investment)
To be honest with you it's really nothing new. Forfor a virtual installation is about six months. Now
almost as long as we've had computer/servers,that's something even the bean counters can get
we've had virtualization. It is simply the ability to runbehind. If you are an IT manager and your company
multiple applications on one piece of hardware at thewon't move to virtualization because of the upfront
same time. Some years ago, for various reasonscost, talk to your VAR. They should be able to help
(stability, performance, segmentation etc...) bestyou do a cost justification. If you can show a
industry practice came up with an unwritten rule forlegitimate ROI of less than a year with the ongoing
the x86 platform: 1 application per server. The RISCpower savings; they will have to take a serious look
and Power platforms never conformed to this rule,at the business implications.
but in the x86 world it was the norm; this lead toNow, one last plea to the business owners and
server sprawl. Tons and tons of pizza box serversdecision makers; Please take an unbiased look at
running at 10% utilization. Need a new app, get avirtualization. IT managers are constantly being asked
new server. Somewhere along the way peopleto do more with less - this technology allows them
started thinking, "Wow, it sure is hot in this serverto actually do it. If the money is invested right there
room." Here's a tip, if you go into your server roomare many other advantages above and beyond the
to warm up, you have too many servers and notmoney you will save. The high availability function can
enough climate control.practically eliminate down time. According to one of
Let's talk finances; cold hard dollars. From mythe largest players in virtualization, all the fortune 100
experience, the average pizza box with just a minimalcompanies use this technology. But don't
configuration usually runs in the neighborhood ofmisunderstand this is not an enterprise only solution. I
$3,000. An average server built for virtualization willmerely point this out to show you that it is a proven
cost about $15,000 (you can spend much more, buttechnology. I know of many companies with 10
let's keep the example simple - but realistic). So rightservers and less that are using virtualization. They are
up front you can see that it is 5 times the cost of asaving money (mostly on power savings), they are
simple server. The $15,000 server can usually hold 10very flexible, their IT is very stable and it is set up
- 15 virtual servers. So from this simple example youso they can easily grow. So there you have a simple
can see that just in hardware, you will haveargument for virtualization; it can save you money, it
significant savings.can save your company, and one day yes, it may
Now let's talk power and cooling. The 1U (1U = 1.75even save the nation.