13 Nov 2009

Virtualisation 'makes companies greener'

Virtualisation could help companies save money and cut carbon emissions in the long run, it has been argued.

Owen Cole, technical director with F5 Networks, noted at the recent Storage Expo 2009 that the technology could reduce carbon emissions through the consolidation of server space and by allowing businesses to use more efficient IT infrastructure which relies on less energy.

"Reducing power consumption, management expenses and increasing efficiency of existing resources through consolidation and virtualisation decreases both the impact of devices on the environment as well as on IT's increasingly tightening budget," he commented.

Elsewhere, Heidi Biggar, solution marketing principal at Hitachi Data Systems, recently noted that virtualisation could help companies improve their disaster recovery readiness.

She argued firms which embrace the technology can rely on greater data availability to ensure that should a crisis befall an office, then employees can work elsewhere to maintain business continuity.