January 15, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Linux a greener alternative to a forced Vista move?
If you read my blog yesterday, you noticed my entry about Microsoft's move to retire XP and effectively force Windows shops into a wasteful migration to Vista.
I spelled out a couple of scenarios:
1. Stick with XP and hope you can gather the licenses you need to run your business as it grows, all the while waiting for a better version of Windows to emerge down the road.
2. Cave in and adopt Vista, either taking a headache-inducing piecemeal approach or an all-out expensive (and again, wasteful) mass migration.
Lo, there's another alternative, one that has been pointed out by a some respondents to my previous post: Move to Linux.
For example, this comes from Gostak:
"I am suggesting VMware on Linux with your current crop of XP licenses. Mission-critical stuff that must run on XP is available, meanwhile you can be working on migrating everything to a native Linux environment that will not toss you on your keister in a few years. Further, the one big thing coming down the pike, 64-bit computing, is fully supported with Linux, so you don't have to worry about being able to fully utilize the next generation."
It's an excellent point. Companies concerned both with sustainability and Microsoft's current ploy may indeed find Linux an appealing alternative. Some IT leaders out there have already observed that, among other things, Linux seems to have a "green" advantage over Windows in terms of energy efficiency.
While we're at it, how about adding thin clients to the list of alternatives to moving to Vista-desktop world?
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Keep the ideas coming.
Related links:
InfoWorld's Save Windows XP campaign
Retiring XP means wasteful upgrades to Vista-capable PCs
Thinking green? Think thin
Linux, Windows duke it out over energy efficiency
Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 15, 2008 12:23 PM
October 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
VMware Infrastructure 3.5 will power down unused servers
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
