As enterprises grow, IT organizations must rapidly add computing capacity, often in the form of new servers with disparate operating environments. The resulting server sprawl is costly in terms of both the new servers and the people needed to operate, manage and upgrade them.

Servers running IT infrastructure applications (file and print server, directory infrastructure, web server, WIN/DHCP/DNS) represent the majority of Intel Architecture server sprawl.  Although most of these servers are only utilized 10% to 15%, they are each dedicated to a single application due to architectural security and compatibility issues.

Managing, patching, and securing these servers takes valuable time. In addition, the proliferation of physical servers drives up operational costs for facilities, power and cooling.  Because of their low server utilization due to low CPU and I/O requirements, IT Infrastructure servers are prime candidates for virtualization and consolidation.

By consolidating physical systems in the data center onto servers with virtualization software, enterprises can achieve:
        · Dramatic improvements in server management
        · Consolidation of idle system resources
        · Increased operational efficiency
        · Lower capital and operational costs
        · Cost-effective and consistent production environments
        · An infrastructure which is more robust and disaster resistant