( 4 Votes )
Following a LinkedIn question posted on how virtualisation technologies work I wanted to share some information on the Why of virtualisation. So much of the virtualisation marketting is geared to the statement that it will save costs but as anyone who has looked at an IT budget breakdown the word cost in this context is far too vague to be of value. Its a bit like saying air is needed for breathing. OK yes it is in a broad context but actually oxygen is the important component (and even then it could be toxic under certain presurised environments so mix concentrations need to be selected based on usage)

The following table shows the breakdown (at a high level) of IT costs  and which virtualisation technologies could best be used to reduce these costs.

Business cost Issue	Virtualisation Technology
	Application	Presentation	File system	Storage	Server	Desktop	Network
Data Centre facilities				ü	ü	ü
Support Overhead	ü		ü	ü	ü	ü
Network bandwidth	ü	ü	ü			x	ü
Business Continuity	ü		ü	ü		ü
License costs	ü	ü			ü
Security			ü			ü
AcquisitionMerger	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü

As there is far more to virtualisation than simply cost containment I will produce an article on the wider issues on the centiq main web page shortly