Edit: Virtualization is standard these days, but in 2007 there was still hesitation in some circles. These were discussions I remember having with customers at this time.
Originally posted August 12, 2007 on AIXchange
I have too many machines in my server room. I am running out of power connections and cooling capacity.
Why not consolidate some of those servers into a smaller physical space, using virtualization on a System p machine? Carve up your LPARs so that each partition uses idle resources that the other LPARs aren’t currently using. If peak workloads vary throughout the day on the different machines, then this could be a good solution. Instead of 10 that are 10-percent utilized and 90-percent idle, why not run 10 LPARs on a single frame and run the whole thing at a higher overall utilization?
This isn’t a magic bullet, and not appropriate for all workloads, but with proper planning this additional tool can help free up space on the raised floor and reduce the overall load on the computing environment.