Virtualization and the Cloud - if I'm a data center manager, what should I know and consider?

We live in an online society but the misconception of online and uptime is great.  Not all resources need to be on 100% of the time because of the simple fact that most resources aren’t fully utilized 100% of the time.  Studies have been done to show that a good amount of IT devices within a data center remain idle or un-utilized with a percentage directly correlated to the age of the data center. Virtualization is a very good way to weed out those devices that are on and drawing power but providing no use.  By virtualizing a dedicated application onto a device that can host many applications at once, will improve the overall efficiency of the data center for two reasons: 

1. Allowing the DC manager to turn off devices that were barely used in the past

2. To run a virtualized server at a higher CPU rate.

The idea of cloud computing helps enforce the whole idea of using only what is necessary vs. leaving everything on all the time.  It allows us to use and allocate resources when we need them.  As an industry we have been very good at solving problems in the past, the primary way of solving a problem was to throw more computers, servers and IT devices at the problem.   “The more is better” mantra proved to be successful but indirectly created a new problem.  The problem it created had a direct correlation on the amount of energy used.  As an industry all of the energy used has created some bad press and has caused the EPA to notice us.  Data centers in the US consume about 5% of the energy usage in the country.  Although it doesn’t seem like a lot, this number is increasing. As a result, the government is preparing to add taxes and levees against this growing power consumption issue.  Cloud computing and virtualization will allow the industry to begin to become more efficient and allows us to live by a new mantra – to “do more with what we have.”  Instead of growing a data center and building on, we’re using the existing space and the existing amount of power to do more.

By Marc Eisenberg, Server Technology, Enterprise Systems Manager

Comments

[IT Support los angeles]

I completely agree to the fact that we don't need all the resources to be on 100% of the time. And managers should be allowed to turn off the devices not in use.