ICT Consolidation using Virtualization Technologies a Cost Effective Approach - Research Paper Example

way of thinking about it is that virtualization provides a way for a company to invest in fewer physical machines and replace them with virtual machines. Virtualization can be thought of in terms of a way to create hardware through the use of software that mimics what the hardware will do but without the actual machine being used. Through this use, one physical machine can hold within it numerous virtual machines that can be more flexible in the ways in which they can be used. Virtualization provides a streamlining of the way in which IT is handled within a business.

Virtualization is not a new idea in Information and Communication Technology as it is has been around for more than a decade. Technologies like Microsoft Terminal Services, VMware and Citrix Metaframe have been available in the industry for many years. Microsoft Terminal Services, VMware and Citrix Metaframe have been in use in small segments of implementation of business technology. These technologies have also proven to be excellent solutions for many IT problems, appearing impossible to solve at first, but a large scale deployment could not happen in the past due to the unjustified high costs of communication links.

The industry lacked consolidated strategies and an implementation approach of Virtualization whereby the ICT Management did not focus on the holistic picture of its benefits to the business at strategic levels. The concept of virtualization has also been in conflict with the interests of a large number of ICT vendors; hardware vendors as well as software vendors. As a result of this the vendors have been grossly discouraged to use virtualization to ensure that they are able to push their own technologies to Companies.

The spurt of continuous disuse of hardware at a high rate and poor justification of the Return of Investments in ICT hardware and software every year, has compelled the modern ICT Management to re-look at virtualization for possible implementation at larger scales.