Recently, a research conducted by Microsoft, it has been revealed that the daily power consumption of a typical data center is equivalent to the monthly power consumption of thousand homes, with a total of 61 billion kilowatt hours going toward datacenter energy consumption. If this pace is maintained then in the forthcoming three years we will require additional 10-15 power plants to keep up to the requirements.

1. Conserve Power with Data Center Virtualization
Recently, a research conducted by Microsoft, it has been revealed that the daily power
consumption of a typical data center is equivalent to the monthly power consumption of thousand
homes, with a total of 61 billion kilowatt hours going toward datacenter energy consumption. If this
pace is maintained then in the forthcoming three years we will require additional 10-15 power
plants to keep up to the requirements.
Therefore, data center managers have two essential guidelines to follow, namely operational
efficiency and application accessibility. Generally, these two often remain at odds with each other.
For attaining operational efficiency a data center manager requires to introduce new technologies.
However, when it comes to the deployment of new technologies there are certain application
accessibility challenges. In addition to this, there remains the old school adage “if it is not broken,
then do not fix it” that further leads to challenges in the adoption of new technology trends. One of
the time tested ways of managing data center expenses and offering application accessibility is
datacenter virtualization.
The concept of data center virtualization is a simple one – converting physical instances to virtual
ones, hosting multiple virtual instances on lesser physical machines, and minimize power
consumption. Gartner in 2008 predicted that approximately 4 million virtual machines are expected
by 2009 and 611 million virtualized personal computers are expected by 2011 with the IT
architecture and operations deeply influenced by virtualization in 2012. However, globally
architects are working towards finding out the appropriate application for virtualization and how
can virtualization assist in power conservation?
According to computing language, data center virtualization is a broad term that indicates the
abstraction of computer resources. The term was widely used back in the 1960’s. The process of
virtualization allows one computer carry on the job of numerous computers, by resource sharing
from a single computer across multiple platforms. The various forms of virtualization are:-
· Platform Virtualization – This is the separation of an OS from the underlying platform
resources
· Resource Virtualization- This entails virtualization of certain system resources, for instance
name spaces, network resources and storage volumes

2. · Application Virtualization – This consists of hosting of individual applications on a separate
software/hardware
· Desktop Virtualization - This refers to the remote manipulation of a computer desktop
Today, eminent companies specializing in information security and systems integration has come up
with innovative datacenter server virtualization lifecycle services. These services can help you attain
benefits such as:-
CAPEX Savings from
· Partition
· Consolidation
OPEX Savings from
· Virtualized production servers
· High availability
· Enhanced disaster recovery capability
Strategic Business Benefits like agility & flexible through:
· Automated IT processes
· Available resource pools
· Capacity on-demand
· Data Center Operational Support
Data center virtualization is frequently implemented to assist business scenarios such as data center
consolidation, disaster recovery, test and development and security. Virtualization is much more
than a mere consolidation of physical services and reducing data center expenses. The technology
has other useful impacts that range from optimal resource utilization to substantial savings in
power, energy and management expenses.
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