Green virtualisation: No tree hugging required

The primary goal of virtualisation is to make the most efficient use of the available system resources. While it may be a little naïve to credit businesses with adopting this technology purely for its green benefits, there has been significant progress in reducing the carbon footprint of IT.

Server virtualisation technology can substantially reduce power consumption by moving workloads to fewer servers. Unused servers can then be powered down and consolidated. According to the Australian Computer Society (ACS), each server removed represents an annual saving of around 3.35 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

David Blackman, channels director for VMware A/NZ said: “Most VMware customers can reduce their server use by a ratio of 12 to one, with some managing 30 to one reductions.”

Not surprisingly, enterprise has already discovered the financial benefits of using a pool of virtual servers to eliminate the need for extra physical servers during peak or unexpected demand. Often referred to as “soft costs”, these include reduced real estate requirements, lower heating and cooling costs and rebates from energy producers.

“People are struggling for floor space, airconditioning and cooling capabilities – it is at the top of the agenda of organisations,” said Simon Elisha, head solutions architect, Hitachi Data Systems. “I’ve often heard people say, ‘you can only bring something in if you can take something out’, which is a real incentive for green storage.”

The IDC estimates that storage accounts for 37 percent of overall data centre power consumption. Hitachi has been focusing on solutions that can consolidate storage and migrate data to the correct tier when required with minimal disruption. It’s a response to concern that virtualised servers could affect the reliability and efficiency of certain systems during peak periods.

“This unique dynamic virtualisation allows us to allocate storage to a virtual host on an ‘as needed’ basis,” said Elisha.

Its latest offering is a slimmed down version of controller-based virtualisation targeted to the SMB market. The easy to manage common interface saves both environmental and human resources.

“The USP VM has proved to be really successful with that [SMB] particular class of organisation,” said Elisha.

“The same functionality and software capabilities of enterprise-level technology are also made available to lower tiers.”

IBM is also focusing its efforts on virtual storage while data centre energy consumption remains a hot topic. According to the vendor, many Australian customers are seeking solutions that target data density.

“Business is growing fast and more than anything else there has been a move toward having the most data efficient devices,” said Nick Milsom, storage virtualisation specialist, IBM A/NZ. “In a commercial sense, virtualisation will reduce their running costs and that will be the main driving force to adopt new technology.”

Seventy percent of IBM solutions are marketed through the channel in A/NZ and the vendor claims resellers can expect continued advancement in data density technology that not only endeavours to be greener, but also more cost effective.

“Data duplication will be incorporated in this area, as well as data density achieving greater efficiency and better exploitation of compression technology,” said Milsom.

There appears to be a general consensus that virtualisation has to be implemented at some point. This may be based on an underlying fear among enterprise that the Australian government will follow the US and European lead in actuating green legislation and handing out penalties to companies that fail to meet environmental standards.

“We’re heading to a stage where business will be buying carbon credits and will be fined for not being green,” said Ward Nash, regional sales manager NSW, Qld and NZ, Wyse. “There is a fear that there will be consequences, so businesses are trying to get ahead of the game.”

Historically, enterprise has required a gentle nudge, if not significant government pressure to employ more environmentally friendly practices. The IT industry may be the exception. Whether they are striving for the coveted six star environmental rating handed out by the ACS, saving money ... or are genuinely concerned about being eco-friendly, green policy is being adopted without obvious government prompting.

“About 12 to 18 months ago, when CIOs in Australia were asked about their environmental policies it wasn’t really on the radar,” said Blackman. “Today, the conversation around environmental policies is more prevalent across Australia and can be further demonstrated with companies such as News Corp and NAB saying they will be carbon neutral by 2010.”

Vendors such as Wyse are well aware ‘the bottom line’ is the foremost concern of business. The consolation is that the financial incentives of adopting virtualisation are a means to a positive end for the environment.

“I don’t think organisations will necessarily deploy virtualisation technology just to be green, it pays to be green when you’re reducing energy bills” said Nash. “It will become a matter of reducing energy costs together with a fear of spending money on carbon credits that will compel business to go green … but I’m sure they’re also really nice guys.”

Wyse virtual technology has most notably streamlined the Flight Centre network. This form of desktop virtualisation takes server virtualisation one step further by using ultra small thin clients on the desktop and linking them to their own virtual machines. As a result, firms can reduce the amount of energy consumed, increase security and deploy full PC desktops on centralised servers.

This raises the question, if virtualisation is so cost effective and eco-friendly, why doesn’t everyone adopt it? Well, a thin client simply can’t do everything a PC can. You can’t plug in your iPod or BlackBerry and this realisation inspired Wyse to move into a new arena of virtualisation, offering a virtualised desktop with additional features such as multimedia and USB capabilities.

“What we can attach to a thin client has quadrupled and so a market has opened up for resellers to offer a thin client with all these additional features,” said Nash.

The channel appears to be embracing this ‘green’ form of technology. Feedback from resellers has been positive as virtualisation delivers a considerable drag with hardware and services sales.

“More than 80 percent of partners surveyed recently expected their revenue to grow significantly thanks to virtualisation market opportunities,” said Blackman. “In some markets resellers are reporting a 23 percent penetration to their customer base.”