Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » VMware Infrastructure 3.5 will power down unused servers

October 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)

VMware Infrastructure 3.5 will power down unused servers

TAGS: Green technology, Power consumption, Server virtualization, VMware, Virtualization

Virtualization, in and of itself, is quite the green technology: It lets companies use fewer servers to get the same amount of work done. But the forthcoming Version 3.5 of VMware Infrastructure, which will include the new VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5, will include a feature designed to further reduce power consumption.

As descibed by VMware, "VMware Distributed Power Management is an experimental feature that reduces power consumption in the data center through intelligent workload balancing. Working in conjunction with VMware DRS, Distributed Power Management is designed to automatically power off servers not currently needed in order to meet service levels, and automatically power on servers as demand for compute resources increases."

That's a pretty cool trick indeed, though the "experimental" descriptor gives me a little pause. Hopefully on of the Test Center analysts will get a chance to kick those tires.

But it's certainly a step in the right direction toward a dynamic server farm.

VMWare Infrastructure 3.5 is due out later this year.

Posted by Ted Samson on October 8, 2007 03:24 PM

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