Microsoft IT Going Green with Virtualization
Virtualization, WSS November 6th, 2007Jeff Woolsey has just finished speaking at the Windows 2008 Workshop here in Seattle. I’ll type up the notes tonight, but there was one slide, I thought was particularly interesting and worth sharing now.
Microsoft Internal IT currently uses Microsoft Virtual Server to host production roles, and are saving HUGE amounts of power and space in their dataceter.
I previously blogged about Microsoft IT and Virtual Server in my older posts Virtualization Podcast and 7% of Microsoft’s production servers are virtualized. (On a side note I finally got to meet Devin in person yesterday).
So let’s get to the super gossip. As I mentioned Microsoft are saving huge amounts of power and space, check out the picture above or the table below:
| Item | Physical System Cost | Virtual Server Build Cost | Savings |
| Number of servers required | 477 systems @ a cost of $5k each Total $2.3 million USD |
16 physical host systems @ $20k each Total $320,000 USD |
Just under 2 million dollars |
| Hard drive space | 19 Tb | 8 Tb | 11 Tb |
| Rack Space | 30 racks | 2 racks | 28 racks |
| Power | 525 amps | 8 amps | 517 amps |
No, that’s not a typo - Microsoft are saving 517 amps of power using Virtualization!
UPDATE: I’m going to track down some updated power information in watts. Keep you posted.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Server Virtualisation has the potential to make a very significant contribution to power savings - which equates to green-house gas and cost reductions, amongst other benefits - all fantastic stuff. The statement that “Microsoft are saving 517 amps of power using Virtualization!” may not be a typo, but it is certainly incorrect. Amps is a unit of current, and as such is meaningless in the context of power without knowing voltage. So how many Watts or VA’s were saved?
November 7th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Hi Dugie, as an Ex-Sparky I think it best to talk of Watts as opposed to Amps? especially where are US cousins are concerned, seeing as they insist on running things on 110 Volts? Not having been inside a US based Data Center it could be that they convert? I dunno, but power consumption in Watts is universal in that it is the same power rating regardless of the Voltage?
November 7th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Hey Eugene/Dave, Yup I agree with you guys on watts. I’ve asked the question, and see if I can get updated figures for you.
November 8th, 2007 at 7:36 am
110 is not typically used in data centers; especially at M$ where they seem to know quite a bit based on recent news. The lowest feeder would like be 220 with more than a healthy smatter of 480 at the distribution layer.
Murray
November 12th, 2007 at 3:45 am
[...] Dugie’s Pensieve » Blog Archive » Microsoft IT Going Green with Virtualization Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
[...] Anyway if you want to take a look at some numbers Microsoft IT made available, Andrew’s post has them. I hope we get the numbers in watts [...]
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 am
[...] http://blog.windowsvirtualization.com/wss/microsoft-it-going-green-with-virtualization-today [...]
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Greetings Dugie, we didn’t get a chance to meet at WS08 tech briefing, but I presented on the Green Data Center. I have been trying to contact you via your email contact link, but the link times out. I am working with some people at Microsoft to investigate these #’s. You can contact me through http://www.greenm3.com email contact. thanks, -dave
January 11th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
The picture seems to show test/development savings. Anyone have the Production number?
June 18th, 2008 at 9:16 am
[...] Devin Murray was the man driving Microsoft’s internal virtualization adoption (I also got to meet the man in person last year; cool [...]