Maximize Your Energy Savings From Server Virtualization With Three Process Improvements

Server virtualization is already saving you money, so why not save some more? Reducing energy costs is among the many reasons to virtualize servers. It's increasingly attractive, since the costs to power and cool a server over its life may actually exceed its purchase price. Not only do servers consume 40% of total data center energy consumption, but 30% of this is wasted by "dead" servers — servers consuming energy but performing no useful work. While server virtualization can eliminate this waste, virtualization alone is not enough. To exploit your energy savings potential, Forrester recommends three process improvements: 1) Increase your overall virtualization footprint; 2) increase your virtual machine (VM)-to-physical host and server utilization ratios; and 3) procure servers and architectures that are more energy-efficient.