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Virtualisation a numbers game

Nafisa Akabor
By Nafisa Akabor, ITWeb junior journalist
Johannesburg, 19 Jun 2009

Virtualisation is all about the numbers, says Raymond Watt, MD of REO Consulting.

“There is no need to stick to the one-to-one, application-to-server ratio anymore. Having multiple servers virtualised on one hardware platform allows you achieve all of your objectives,” states Watt.

He will speak at ITWeb's second annual Virtualisation of the Enterprise Conference, taking place on 21 and 22 July at The Forum in Bryanston. He will examine how virtualisation enables companies to reduce costs, get a better return on existing hardware, and reduce the number of physical servers and power consumption.

Getting a better return on existing hardware all depends on a virtualisation strategy, says Watt. “It is not a given that your existing hardware will or could be used. We see great variance in the re-utilisation strategies of our clients.

“If we do assume that your existing hardware is compatible with virtualisation technologies, you will definitely experience a much higher ROI from those platforms and its virtualised servers.”

Watt adds that server consolidation offers many benefits, including business continuity, disaster recovery, lower TCO with higher ROI, dynamic computing, and increased security.

Virtualised Enterprise 2009

To register and to view the full agenda for ITWeb's Virtualisation of the Enterprise conference, taking place on 21 and 22 July at The Forum, Bryanston, click here.

Also speaking at the conference is Vishal Mothie, technical specialist at Novell PlateSpin. He will discuss the seamless adoption of virtualisation, workload relocation and management and leveraging virtualisation for cost-effective disaster recovery.

Mothie says when companies look at adopting virtualisation, the adoption process typically results in end-users or businesses experiencing some sort of downtime. “I define seamless as a process whereby end-users or businesses do not even know their systems have been relocated from a physical environment to a virtual environment.”

Workload relocation

According to Mothie, workload relocation is the movement of a workload from a physical environment to a virtual environment with minimal downtime and no need to perform additional configuration. “This is key to any company adopting virtualisation.”

Companies will benefit by reducing power and cooling costs, save data centre space, limit the number of physical servers that need to be maintained, and above all, gain flexibility, says Mothie.

Related stories:
Virtualisation conference approaches
The cloud gathers steam

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