Virtualization Strategies News, Analysis, White Papers and Case Studies on Virtualization Software and Hardware Strategies

Cisco introduced its first server last week in a bid to help unify the data centers into one cohesive unit. By extending its product line, Cisco will also capture a larger share of spending in the still hot and growing data center market.

The approach, called a Unified Computing System, takes new Cisco networking equipment and packages it with Cisco’s first blade server, storage hardware and virtualization software. It expands Cisco’s role beyond networking and into the unfamiliar territory of server manufacturing, which is dominated by partners IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Cisco’s packaged system, which will go on sale in the second quarter, will provide an especially flexible and efficient architecture, enabling IT managers to get more out of their hardware. “It gives us a chance to be the leading company not just in communications but in IT,” said Cisco CEO John Chambers.

Chambers said the rise of virtualization in the last few years helped prompt Cisco to expand its role in the data center. Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization News

Virtualization is a technology that can benefit just about any business. Thousands of IT executive around the world—including all of the Fortune 100—use virtualization solutions to reduce IT costs while increasing the efficiency, utilization and flexibility of their existing computer hardware. Here are a few of the top benefits to developing your virtualization strategy.

1) Server Consolidation and Optimization: Virtualization makes it possible to achieve significantly higher sever utilization by pooling common infrastructure resources and avoiding the need for one server for each application model.

2) Infrastructure Cost Reduction: With virtualization, you can reduce the number of servers and related IT hardware in the data center. This leads to reductions in real estate, power and cooling requirements, resulting in significantly lower IT costs.

3) Improved Operational Flexibility & Responsiveness: Virtualization offers a new way of managing IT infrastructure and can help IT administrators spend less time on repetitive tasks such as provisioning, configuration, monitoring and maintenance. Read More…

Posted under Data Center Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies

Over the past year, virtualization has moved to a mainstream technology that is being embraced by most enterprises. The evolution is due to the potential cost savings and increased flexibility that server virtualization can provide.From a cost-savings perspective, virtualization has the potential to reduce IT spending and improve server utilization which reduces power and cooling cost. Yet what is most exciting to IT managers is the increased flexibility virtualization can enable. IT team can deploy virtual servers faster than dedicated servers which increased their ability to react to ever changing business needs.

The challenge has been that IT applications are continuously expanding. Past solutions often involved a single application on each x86 server to avoid crashes or performance problems. Given tight IT budgets, very low utilization, and the high costs associated with low server utilization, virtualization has emerged as a way of controlling costs through consolidation while increasing the flexibility of IT. Read More…

Posted under Green IT, Server Virtualization, Virtualization Strategies