Flash Research Assignment:
Virtualization and Cloud Computing
Bridgette Weirich
By upgrading our physical servers to virtual machines, using VMware, our company could
save over 9.2 million dollars. Virtualization uses the leftover space of physical servers,
consolidating multiple operating systems and increasing efficiency. Ultimately, virtualization
will lead to reducing costs, compared to if we had to purchase 1000 new computer servers next
year.
VMware, the leading supplier of virtual machines, will overall benefit our datacenter with
the use of server consolidation, by achieving a 10:1 virtual to physical machine consolidation.
Which means that ten server applications can run on one machine that previously required nine
other physical machines. In addition, virtualization will decrease out data centers energy
consumptions because of the decreased need for more physical servers and cooling power for
those servers.
If our company chooses virtualization, we will have to invest a total of 4.8 million dollars,
2.8 million on traditional servers and 1.9 million on maintenance for those servers. If we decided
to not invest in virtualization, we would pay a total of 14 million for the traditional servers and
the maintenance needed. Overall, from the business standpoint we can see that virtualization is
the cost effective choice, with a net benefit exceeding 9.2 million.
Year 1
Data Center
Physical Servers
Average Server
Costs/server
Total Purchase
Cost
Maintenance/ser
ver
Total Annual
cost
1000
$8,000
$8,000,000
$2000/year
Total Servers
Physical servers
Servers avail for
virtualization
$2,000,000
1000
200
800
Year2
Year3
Costs
200 traditional servers
$1,600,000.00
$-
$-
$1,600,000.00
80 Vmware servers
Maintenance 200
traditional servers
Maintenance 80
Vmware servers
$1,280,000.00
$-
$-
$1,280,000.00
$400,000.00
$400,000.00
$400,000.00
$1,200,000.00
$240,000.00
$240,000.00
$240,000.00
$720,000.00
Total Costs
Benefits
Eliminate 1000 new
traditional servers
Eliminate maintenace
on 1000 trad. servers
$4,800,000.00
$8,000,000.00
$-
$-
$8,000,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$6,000,000.00
Total Benefits
Net Benefits
High end server
cost
Vmware server
cost
Hardeware
Purchase
Savings
$1,600,000
$1,280,000
$2,880,000
$5,120,000
Traditional
$400,000
Virtual
$240,000
Citations:
Rouse, Margaret. "What Is Virtualization?" Tech Target. Tech Target, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.
Burger, Thomas. "The Advantages of Using Virtualization Technology in the Enterprise." The
Advantages of Using Virtualization Technology in the Enterprise. Intel, 5 Mar. 2012. Web. 16
Feb. 2015.
"Virtualization." Technology & Virtual Machine Software. VMware, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.
$14,000,000.00
$9,200,000.00