Overview : Server Virtualizations

Virtualization is one of the hottest trends in information technology today. This is no accident. While a variety of technologies fall under the virtualization umbrella, all of them are changing the IT world in significant ways.

An end-to-end strategy for virtualization and supporting platforms can profoundly impact nearly every aspect of IT infrastructure, security, and management.

Fortunately, virtualization offers much more than simple server consolidation and cost savings. Regardless of the size or nature of the enterprise, Microsoft Virtualization Technology Solutions provide components to address end to end scenarios like Datacenter Consolidation, Business Continuity and Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure solutions ultimately realizing lower TCO, improved business continuity and enhanced security.

This overview introduces virtualization technologies, focusing on various areas including hardware virtualization, presentation virtualization and application virtualization. Since every technology, virtual or otherwise, must be effectively managed, this discussion also looks at available management products for a virtual world. The goal is to make clear what these offerings do, describe a bit about how they do it, and show how they work together.

Virtualization technologies provide a range of benefits. Yet as an organization’s computing environment gets more virtualized, it also gets more abstract. Increasing abstraction can increase complexity, making it harder for IT staff to control their world. The corollary is clear: If a virtualized world isn’t managed well, its benefits can be elusive.

The pull of virtualization is strong—the economics are too attractive to resist. And for most organizations, there’s no reason to fight against this pull. Well-managed virtualization technologies can make their world better.

Take a broad view of this area, providing hardware virtualization, presentation virtualization, application virtualization, and more. The company also takes a broad view of management, with virtualized technologies given equal weight to their physical counterparts. As the popularity of virtualization continues to grow, these technologies are becoming a bedrock of modern computing.

Benefits

• Consolidates multiple, under-utilized physical servers on a single host, running Virtual Machines
• Reduces workforce/space/kilowatt by leveraging virtualization for server consolidation and agilit
• Helps save money because less managing, less space and less kilowatt hours are needed