Server Virtualization
[Flash Research Paper Assignment for MIS 2501, Enterprise IT Architecture – Spring 2013]
Utilizing virtualization technology to refresh the hardware in our data center will result in a net benefit of $9.2 million over the next three years. Our data center has 1,000 physical servers that absorb space and energy costs that can be avoided. Server virtualization consolidates physical servers to save space, energy, and money in our data center.
Server virtualization is a technology that converts one physical server into multiple virtual machines. Each virtual machine is an independent, tightly isolated software container with an operating system and an application inside (Figure 2). Traditional servers can only run one application on one physical server. Server virtualization under VMWare allows for consolidation of 10 physical servers onto one virtual machine server, thereby performing the same workload utilizing a tenth of the space and energy. Virtualization also allows for more flexibility in data center management because virtual machines are software files that can be copied, moved, or erased. For example, business critical applications can be duplicated and concurrently run on multiple virtual machines housed in different physical servers. This is a safety measure that allows operations to continue in the event of physical server failure.
An estimated 80% of our 1,000 servers can run as virtual machines. Every 10 servers can be consolidated into 1 physical server, cutting the total amount of physical servers down to 280. The costs per physical server increase with virtualization, but the total cost of implementation and maintenance over three years is $4.8 million. Compared to the cost of running our current equipment, $14 million, virtualization results in a three-year net benefit of $9,200,000.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Works Cited
Dawson, Philip and Nathan Hill. “Hype Cycle for Virtualization, 2012.” Gartner. 24 July 2012. Web.
Strickland, Jonathon. “How Server Virtualization Works.” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.
“Virtualization Basics.” VMware Virtual Machine & Virtualization Benefits. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.