Virtualization and moving to the cloud are considered to be a great way to decrease the cost of IT. Server virtualization has been widely adopted with about half of all servers now virtualized. The cost savings are significant. There are savings in higher utilization of fewer more powerful servers. Virtualization also lowers the cost of managing the servers. A new virtual server can be set up in a matter of minutes! These virtual servers are easier to move around and manage as they are all the same.
Virtualization of desktops, storage and moving to the cloud are not as wide spread as server virtualization. Companies implementing these solutions are not reporting the savings as being as high according to Gartner Survey and Symantec Survey. These other areas of virtualization and moving to the cloud are newer trends. Although companies are reporting challenges they look promising – I suppose time will tell…
Networkworld Articles:
“Gartner: IT should be planning, moving to private clouds”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/061511-gartner-private-clouds.html?page=2
“Survey finds many disappointed in virtualization, cloud computing”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/061311-virtualization-survey.html