Table of Contents
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
2 THE NEW DATA CENTER 5
2.1 OVERVIEW 5
2.2 KEY THEMES 5
3 COMPUTING 8
3.1 PLATFORMS 8
3.2 OPERATING SYSTEMS 9
3.3 DENSITY OF SERVERS IN THE DATA CENTER 10
3.4 BLADE SERVERS AND VIRTUALIZATION 13
4 SERVER VIRTUALIZATION 15
4.1 INTRODUCTION TO SERVER VIRTUALIZATION 15
4.2 VIRTUALIZATION CURRENT STATE 17
4.3 VIRTUALIZATION COST SAVINGS 20
4.4 SERVER VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS 21
4.5 VIRTUALIZATION FOR SERVER CONSOLIDATION 23
4.6 VIRTUALIZATION AS ABSTRACTION LAYER 29
4.7 VIRTUALIZATION FOR BUSINESS RECOVERY 31
4.8 VIRTUALIZATION AND LIVE-MIGRATION FOR MAINTENANCE OR LOAD BALANCING 34
4.9 VIRTUALIZATION FOR TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE 37
4.10 VIRTUALIZATION FOR PATCHING 40
4.11 VIRTUALIZATION FOR SECURITY 41
4.12 VIRTUALIZATION FOR THIN-CLIENT DESKTOP 44
5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 48

6 APPENDIX A - BENCHMARK METHODOLOGY 51
6.1 PROCESS 51
6.2 BY INDUSTRY 52
6.3 BY SIZE 52
6.4 PARTICIPANTS 55
6.5 TIMEFRAME 56
6.6 DISCLAIMER 56

Table of Figures
FIGURE 1: HARDWARE PLATFORMS 8
FIGURE 2: OPERATING SYSTEMS 9
FIGURE 3: SERVER DEPLOYMENT DENSITY (PER DATA CENTER) 11
FIGURE 4: SERVERS PER SERVER ADMINISTRATOR (OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY) 12
FIGURE 5: FROM PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL SERVER 15
FIGURE 6: VIRTUALIZATION CONCEPTUAL MODELS 17
FIGURE 7: ADOPTION OF SERVER VIRTUALIZATION BY INDUSTRY 18
FIGURE 8: DRIVERS FOR ADOPTION OF VIRTUALIZATION 20
FIGURE 9: SERVER PURCHASING SAVINGS FROM VIRTUALIZATION 21
FIGURE 10: CONSOLIDATION WITH VIRTUAL MACHINES 24
FIGURE 11:MULTI-OS CONSOLIDATION WITH VIRTUAL MACHINES 25
FIGURE 12: RATIO OF VIRTUAL SERVERS PER HOST OVER TIME 27
FIGURE 13: VIRTUALIZATION FOR BUSINESS RECOVERY 32
FIGURE 14: VIRTUALIZATION FOR CONTINUITY 35
FIGURE 15: VIRTUALIZATION FOR TESTING AND QA 38
FIGURE 16: VIRTUALIZED SECURITY SOFTWARE 42
FIGURE 17: VIRTUALIZATION FOR THIN CLIENT DESKTOP 46
FIGURE 18: TYPE OF COMPANY 52
FIGURE 19: ANNUAL REVENUE 53
FIGURE 20: IT BUDGET 54
FIGURE 21: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 55
FIGURE 22: PARTICIPANT TITLES 56

1 Executive Summary

Data centers have been around since the dawn of computing. But just because they’ve been around forever doesn’t mean they’ve endured unchanged. In fact, we’re smack in the middle of a radical shift in data-center architecture, design and operations.
Nemertes’ groundbreaking benchmark, “The New Data Center 2006,” details these changes and their impacts, highlights critical issues for IT executives, and provides best practices and success strategies for organizations seeking to deploy and leverage this new data center.

In Volume 2 we examine computing, platforms and operating systems. A big part of this volume is dedicated to virrtualization technologies and associated solutions

2 The New Data Center
2.1 Overview
The major themes and shifts of the new data center contained within are based on detailed discussions with 82 IT executives from 65 companies, spanning various industries and company sizes (For further details, please see Appendix A - Benchmark Methodology starting on page 51). The average revenue of the participants is $5 billion, and the average IT budget is $145.5 million. Participant organizations had, on average, 24,000 employees in 385 locations. To serve these employees, organizations operated an average of eight data centers.

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Read the Benchmark

Clients may access the full benchmark .

Non-clients wishing further information may contact sales@nemertes.com [1].

Technology vendors can request to provide a briefing or receive a briefing [2] from a Nemertes Analyst.

Nemertes Research conducts benchmark interviews with leading IT executives. Our research participants receive this research for free. There are limited opportunities for IT executives of all industries and company sizes to sign up as participants [3].