This is part two of a two-part series about virtualization. In the first post, we attempted to explain what virtualization is and why you should care about it. Here, we explain more about server virtualization and share our own positive experience with it.

Server Virtualization

If your organization has multiple server computers that supply your computer system with email, Internet, print services, databases, data back-ups, password authentications, a place to store documents, and more, then server virtualization is something that can save your organization money and energy. Virtualization software can cut server power consumption by up to 80%.

Server virtualization is software that allows you to optimize a single server computer so that it is able to do the work of multiple servers. Did you know that most servers are only utilized between 10 and 15%?

Imagine, instead of having a mail server, a file server, and a print server, you could install them all on the same physical server. Each virtual server functions independently, so if one of the virtual servers needs to be rebooted or serviced you can do that without affecting the others on the physical server. They can even run different operating systems like Linux and Windows.

At TechSoup, we installed virtualization software and have saved ourselves 72% in data center energy costs. Virtualization also saves money in hardware and tech support costs and has the additional benefits of improving ease of network management, reducing backup and recovery time, improvement in testing software, and saving server room space and cooling costs. It is, in short, one of the important technologies in green IT energy and resource conservation.

Our Own Case Study

In TechSoup's case, our IT infrastructure director, Tim Suttle, researched all the options and led our team of techies in 2008 to make the switch. The project took some months and had a number of benefits to us: 

• 18 servers were consolidated onto four in our remote datacenter site. That gave us a 46% savings in electricity each month. It also saved us $30,000 for remote server control hardware.
• We consolidated 60 servers onto four at our headquarters in San Francisco. That gave us a 72% savings in electricity each month.
• It also saved us a $40,000 cost in upgrades we didn't need to do to our server room cooling system.
• It provides us with a $24,000 annual savings in server administration time by cutting server administration time by 40 to 50 hours a month. Software crashes on the new virtualized system have also decreased.
• Lastly, our new virtual servers are much faster and easier to install without needing additional space or cabling.

The Vendors

The main server virtualization applications are:

• VMWare
• Microsoft Hyper-V is a free add-on to Windows Server 2008
• Citrix XenServer
• Parallels for Macs

Conclusion

Virtualization is a big and complex topic, but is well worth exploring as all of us search for better ways to reduce our carbon footprint and do our work more efficiently.

"Virtualization isn't a magic bullet for everything. While many solutions are great candidates for running virtually, applications that need a lot of memory, processing power or input/output may be best left on a dedicated server. For all of the upside virtualization isn't magic, and it can introduce some new challenges. But in most cases the many cost and efficiency advantages will outweigh any issues, and virtualization will continue to grow gain popularity," from What is Virtualization, and Why Should You Care?

Also check out 10 Things You Should Know About Virtualization. They detail a few criteria you should know about virtualization before you start.

This post is part of our November campaign to help you reduce your IT power use. Follow our Unpower Yourself Campaign and enter our contest by November 20 to be eligible to win an hour of tech consulting time, have your organization featured on TechSoup.org, or win a gift card.
   
For more on virtualization, check out our new GreenTech virtualization page.

Photo: TechSoup for Libraries Internet archive servers