Virtualization - Making IT Work Harder For You

By Candace Labelle
GreenWay Program Director, CSC

IT implementations across the industry have over the past two decades grown exponentially and inefficiently. It was often cheaper to buy a large new server or load up with new hard disks than it was to try and analyze work a server was performing, space it was consuming and the energy it required to function. IT architects used to stipulate that applications and database systems must be installed on individual servers rather than being shared, regardless of the excess capacity.

Today’s new thinking around sustainability, newly available green services and technologies, combined with new pressures around energy and finances, is generating fresh thinking for data center architecture and engineering.

Virtualization technology on desktops and servers helps make IT work harder for our clients. This technology enables computing power to be pooled, allowing many individual severs or desktops to be replaced by a single system. In the case of server virtualization, it is not uncommon to achieve the replacement of fifteen servers with a single server. With desktops, the computing power is pooled into a centralized server. CSC has enabled clients to achieve significant savings in hardware and energy by replacing desktop and PC devices with state-of-the-art thin client virtualized user consoles.

The benefits of virtualization extend beyond the immediate savings in reducing hardware (procurement and disposal) and energy costs of reducing servers and desktops. Not only does it allow for a more streamlined service to be delivered to users, but also supports the centralization of servers, storage and backup devices. Such support systems require their own power and cooling, and the trickle-down effect on the server reductions are seen throughout. Furthermore, a more centralized architecture enables greater maintenance and monitoring, as well as the ability to control energy consumption more closely.

At CSC we assist our clients in achieving virtualization of their systems in many ways. From building business cases through design to deployment, we are able to assist our client in any part of the virtualization life cycle. In addition, CSC offers Virtual Desktop Services that provide an out-of-the-box managed service for end user computing.