Data Centers and Server Farms Enter a Virtual Reality: Verizon Consolidates, Virtualizes Servers to Help Improve Efficiency and Conserve Energy

Virtualization uncouples operating systems and applications from the physical hardware to allow a server, networking or storage device to run multiple, isolated and diverse virtual environments. In practice, the technology enables businesses to consolidate multiple IT resources, such as operating systems and software applications, on a single server. These resources are called "Virtual instances." Consolidation through virtualization can reduce the number of servers used, decrease floor space requirements and lower costs because of less demand for power and equipment. Not only can they control costs and conserve energy-a greener way of doing business-they also can build redundancy into their infrastructure while using less equipment than they might with traditional configurations.