The green side of virtualisation

By Staff Writer for KPMG
Johannesburg, 26 May 2009

Adopting a virtualisation approach in IT environments will provide key benefits in terms of becoming more 'green', says Eugene Pfister, director of IT advisory at KPMG.

He says server, storage and desktop virtualisation helps reduce heat, power and space requirements and ultimately allows businesses to become more environmentally friendly.

Pfister explains that server virtualisation involves segmenting the device into multiple operating systems, allowing these environments to operate independently and simultaneously on one device with the help of blade servers. In this way, devices are stripped of redundant components, such as power supplies and hard drives, which reduces the effect on the environment.

“Blade servers are compact and have a small impact on the data centre's physical footprint. They are also efficient because many servers share components, which leads to fewer energy requirements and less data centre real estate,” he explains. The downside, however, is that a very dense blade server environment needs a lot more cooling.

In terms of processors within the server space, says Pfister, newer multi-core, multi-threaded processors enable processing speeds three to five times faster than older technology. “This means fewer processors are required in a server, driving down the power and cooling requirements,” he adds.

“Where server virtualisation is about consolidation of server hardware resources, the aim of desktop virtualisation is the consolidation of the desktop environment to save on space, power and to reduce heat,” says Pfister.

Storage virtualisation allows large data centres to deploy big, disc-dense devices that are more efficient than a distributed set of independent devices, he notes.

Incorporating storage virtualisation in a blade server environment enables the organisation to implement a large storage array or network as a separate, optimised device, says Pfister, resulting in reduced energy, cooling and real estate requirements within the data centre.