Server Virtualisation & Consolidation

Optimising existing IT infrastructure to cut costs and boost efficiency

As your company’s IT infrastructure grows and evolves, it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. This leads to businesses working with inefficient systems operating at a fraction of their potential. A practical solution is to utilise techniques known as server consolidation and virtualisation.

Server consolidation

Server consolidation is an effective way of reducing the total number of servers or server locations that an organisation requires, improving efficiency and simplifying maintenance and management issues. Server consolidation is typically put into effect in response to the problem of ‘server sprawl’, a condition in which numerous, under-utilised servers consume more space and resources than is necessary.

Virtualisation

Virtualisation is a method of dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments. This allows, for example, the running of more than one operating system on a single piece of hardware, reducing processing power and hardware costs.

Getting the most out of existing resources

At a time of rising energy costs companies are looking to server consolidation and virtualisation to reduce power consumption as well as simplify their IT management requirements and minimise unused hardware and software. The cost-saving benefits of consolidation and virtualisation are clear and the investment quickly recovered.

The HP Blade environment delivers a centralised and fully managed server with a much reduced physical footprint and power requirement than traditional rack and tower servers. HP Blades consume far less power and require less cooling than traditional servers. Combined with comprehensive management tools and a range of server specifications provided by HP for the Blades environment, the HP Blade environment is a wise choice for many businesses.

Combined with Blade server technology, or on traditional servers, VMWare Virtualisation is the market leader in enabling businesses to consolidate their servers. This brings about significant savings in server hardware, warranty packs, power and cooling requirements along with significant benefits such as enhanced backup and data recovery.