How to Save on Power Consumption by Consolidating Servers Using Virtualization

Share this:

Over the years, many IT Departments have added to their hardware inventory. New servers were plugged into the company network, and besides the increased complexity, something else also grew dramatically: The electricity bill.

There is a ripple effect every time a new processor starts to consume power. Supporting infrastructure, such as peripherals and cooling systems request additional energy for delivering their work, as well. Also the increased traffic in the network generates more data packages collisions and conflicts, which adds computational cycles and network overhead, and henceforth more energy.

Start multiplying these little energy consumption increments by the units of hardware added to your network, and you have an important cost center to be managed.

This scenario explains what your company needs to consider when planning to consolidate scattered servers into a more compact virtualized infrastructure, which can substantially reduce spending on electricity.

explore
deploy
manage
maintain

1)

What is Green IT?
Microsoft environmental technologist Mark Aggar explains how to save energy with virtualization. See part two here.

2)

Be Proactive and Do Green IT Using the Cloud
Considerations about Green IT using Cloud Computing.

3)

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Technical Overview
Read in this PDF white paper for the technical concepts behind virtualization implemented in Windows Server 2008.

4)

Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool
Calculate your potential savings with virtualization using the Alinean ValueBase (registration required).

1)

Download Microsoft® Hyper-V™ Server 2008 R2
Get the bits you need to start with Hyper-V.

2)

Planning Your Power Management and Virtualization Strategies
TechNet Magazine walks through the steps to calculating power savings and CO2 emission reductions.

3)

Infrastructure Planning and Design: Dynamic Datacenter
Download a Solution Accelerator with virtualization guidance, planning documents and schematics.

4)

Virtual Machine Migration Test Wizard
Test your server CPUs for compatibility with Hyper-V virtual machines.

5)

Download Virtual Machine Manager Deployment Guide
This Word document covers system and network requirements, as well as all aspects of VMM planning and implementation.

1)

Planning Windows Server 2008 Server Roles
Take the first step in Microsoft Learning’s coursework for virtualization managers.

2)

Server Virtualization Playbook
Get real customer stories and lessons from virtualization pioneers.

3)
Implement Virtualization for Green IT
Watch a video of how Tel Aviv Municipality saved $2.1 millions in one year.
4)

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions From the Desktop to the Datacenter
Microsoft Press has a complete virtualization e-book available free of charge.

5)

PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V
Download a PDF guide to installing and running PowerShell management tools for Hyper-V Server or Windows Server 2008 R2.

1)

Troubleshooting Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008 R2
The TechNet Library’s end-to-end guide to eliminating problems in Hyper-V installations.

2)

TechNet Forum: Hyper-V
Put your ear to the IT Pro ground and learn with the community.

3)

Hyper-V Security Solution Accelerator
Download a comprehensive guide to securing Hyper-V and virtual machines.

4)

Webcast: Security Best Practices for Hyper-V and Server Virtualization
Microsoft’s Mike Sterling explains Hyper-V security in this 300-level webcast.

 

logo Hyper-V