Green is the new black. Everything seems to go well with green, including laptops (see the MacBook Air). Well, Green Data Centers have become a key focus over the past 24 months, and going Green can mean serious cost savings. (Take a look at this great article from CIO Magazine on How Green Data Centers Save Money by Stephanie Overby). And who doesn’t need more money in their IT budget for cool things like iPhones, Macbooks and Microsoft Surface. 
So, if Green is the new black, what is becoming clearly evident is that Virtualization is the new Green. I was astounded by the fact that after speaking with an old friend this week, he “knew” of virtualization, and it had been on the radar for the past couple of years, but he had no plans to move forward on it, as of yet. None. And, he owns his own hosting company. What a great use case for virtualization.
Anyway, back to green. Look around, processors are getting denser, with 2, 4 and soon 8 cores per processor, consuming less and less power per core. If the inclusion of “VT (virtualization technology)” at the hardware level by Intel (and somewhat AMD with AMD-v) wasn’t the tell tale sign of the intended use of these servers, then I don’t know what is… Really, do you believe that running a Windows OS on a dual quad-core cpu server (8 cores total), with IIS is the best use of this server’s capabilities? Sure, with Oracle or SQL Server, you could “dedicate” that machine to your needs, if it warranted. (Remember, virtualization rule of thumb: High I/O or High CPU Workloads = Dedicated Server, anything else, and I don’t see a reason not to virtualize.)
Again, back to green. How could virtualization enable Green in my data center, you ask? Quick example:
- Step 1. Take your most powerful, recently purchased (12 - 18 months) server, and pack it with a little more RAM (at least 8-12GB, if possible).
- Step 2. Back it up, possibly with something like Acronis or Platespin, in preparation to virtualize.
- Step 3. Install and configure VMware ESX 3.0 on it, and start it up.
- Step 4. P2V (Physical to Virtual) convert several of the servers you have running on similar machines, and load them as virtual machines your new VMware host. Let’s assume you converted 4 servers, just as a starting point.
- Step 5. Shutdown the original servers. Now check the usage on your metered PDU or UPS. If this is not a shared data center, but a company DC in your facility, then wait 20 minutes, and check the temperature in the room. Is it down? Even one degree is a significant atmospheric change.
Like your results? Well then, repeat steps 2 - 5, as many times as you would like.
Feel the green glow in the room getting stronger? You may be surprised, but those aren’t plants growing in your data center. That’s money pilling up in the corner as you reduced your power, cooling costs AND x86 server costs.
Have you had a similar experience, or do you disagree? Tell me what you think.
- clikdude
Tags: Data Center, Green IT, Virtual Infrastructure, VMware
