Virtualization is the perception of sharing hardware resources among the services and applications that use the resources. At the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in 2008, virtualization was the number one of its top 10 strategic technologies. Virtualization allows to take a single hardware resource and turn it into multiple resources from the application’s point of view. For instance, a single physical server can be transformed into multiple “virtual” servers, each with its own CPU, memory, disk drive, and network controller which are not connected to each, even though they all run on the same physical server. This allows numerous applications to run on a single server without the opportunity of them interfering with each other. In fact, server virtualization is the most familiar and most frequently way of virtualization applied today. Other resources that can be virtualized comprise disk storage, memory, network resources, and applications. By virtualizing physical resources, companies can save energy and money, as well as make it easier to reposition these resources as the needs of the business changes.

Virtualization essentially uses software to reduce hardware. On a server or a desktop PC, it allows many operating systems and several applications to run on a single computer. The software that makes this possible is known as a hypervisor. The hypervisor creates a layer between the physical hardware and the virtualized operating system or application. Sometimes, the hypervisor acts as its own operating system and works directly with the hardware; in other cases, it only sits on top of the operating system installed on the machine. The hypervisor makes the virtual operating system or application think that the underlying hardware belongs only to it, providing an isolated environment, and then a problem with one does not affect another working on the same hardware.

Other types of virtualization, such as virtualizing networks, desktops, and storage, all work in a similar fashion. A part of software assisted by specialized hardware, sometimes allows to create a virtual resource from one or more physical resources, managing and allocating this resource to users and applications as needed. Virtualization greatly offers potential benefits to an organization without regard to its impact on the environment. However, virtualization offers as well benefits from a green perspective:

1. Reduced energy use: By rising the utilization of computing resources and decreasing the number of physical devices, the quantity of energy needed to operate the devices is reduced. Therefore, the amount of energy required to cool these devices, thus doubling the reduction of energy usage.
2. Diminution in toxic waste: The majority of these electronic devices have toxic materials including lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. These materials can be released into the environment if the devices are not recycled correctly.
3. Decreasing in facility requirements: If the amount of equipment is decreased, so it will be reflected in more space.

As serves in data facilities worldwide consume around 408 Megawatt , data centre companies also are moving towards “greener “ IT operations, by using wireless network and  network virtualization for removing servers from services as a result of server consolidation. Virtualizing a data center gives significant savings to a company, but it takes time for IT managers to understand how to best apply this new approach and which type of virtualization to choose. Once the principles are clear and the changes are performed, the savings are almost instantaneous. When companies think about being Green, they look at their emissions, their waste stream, and their overall “footprint” on the environment. This is natural since this is what gains headlines in the press. Energy saving gadgets used in conjunction with these ideas around the work place are helping companies become greener.

However, there is another area where significant environmental benefits can be realized. It is named a virtualized work force. One of the challenges companies face is the growth of their work force. Companies add floor space, parking lots, break areas, and others. Over time, departments become disjointed across numerous floors or over diverse office trying to provide an adequate space. However, All of this floor space is expensive as well as the cost of cubicles, furnishings, and computing equipment. When documents physically moved from one person to another, this approach makes a great deal of sense. Companies can save money by virtualizing a part of their work force. This reduces office space, furniture, and utility costs. Workers would not need a place to sit as they could to sit at home. They would not need a work area to shuffle paper, as everything is accomplished electronically. They are using the same data center servers and internal network as before, but the difference is the potential need for a higher capacity network connection from the data center to the outside world.

In conclusion, it can be seen that virtualization holds promise as a solution for many challenging problems. It can help reduce infrastructure costs, delay data-center build-outs, improve the ability to respond to fast-moving business needs, allow a massive-scale infrastructure to be managed in a more flexible and automated way, and help reduce carbon emissions.

 References

Kotsovinos, E. 2011.Virtualization: Blessing or curse?.Communication of the ACM. 54(1): 61-65.

Schultz, B. 2009. Citigroup LEEDS by example: New data centre certification in Texas wins green certification. Strategies and technologies for optimization IT. Retrieved 8 Jan, 2013 from WWW.NETWORKWORLD.COM

Webber, L & Wallace, M. 2009. Green Tech: How implement plan and implement sustainable IT solutions. Amacon: New York.

Noble, H. 2009. Green IT design. IT service University of Oxford. Retrieved Feb 23, 2013 fromWWW.OUCS.OX.AC.UK/GREENIT/OXFORD-CENTRAL-MACHINE-ROOM-DESIGN.XML?ID=BODY.1_DIV.7