Virtualise Profits and Cash In.

As money gets tighter so firms spend only on essentials. And with electricity prices due to hit record highs due to oil and gas prices having just gone through the roof, companies are buying only the minimum they can get away with. The message we've been receiving from the IT world is clear: Corporations are spending on the essential hardware and software, but they are being very careful when it comes everything that falls below that threshold. In a depressed business spending environment, virtualisation is one of the only software spaces showing an increase in corporate purchasing allowed for. The prime reason virtualisation remains a high priority in IT planning is because it's a means of delivering efficiency and cost savings to the data centres,where there are loads of servers... VMware (VMW)claim that for every server virtualised, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), or four tons of CO2 emissions, every year. VMware has virtualized more than 6 million server workloads since 1998, resulting in an estimated energy savings of nearly 39 billion kWh -- or about $4.4 billion -- roughly equivalent to the total energy consumption of Denmark for one year! What is virtualisation, you may wonder. Well, that's much easier to ask than it is to answer. Without getting too techie, I'll try to explain as best I can. Wikipedi's definition leaves a lot to be desired. Basically it is a technology allowing us to maximise our efficient use of the technology. Damn, I understand the concept but explaining it is something I will have to return to when I work out how best to explain it. Meantime those of you sufficiently interested can go look it up yourselves. VMWare is an offshoot of EMC,the data storage firm which had a presence here in Ireland,at the wonderfully-named Ovens,County Cork. They spun VMWare off and the stock had a stellar performance after its IPO, and has now dropped into price levels which will bring joy to investors. Way below the radar of the analylsts who have been scarred by the dot.com bubble,this is what I see as the wave of the future. And with a world reliant on energy to drive the computers we use in order to communicate and trade,squeezing as much as we can use from decreasing supply is vital. Remember the Green Capitalist aims to maximise efficient use of energy. And make money from it. EMC still own a large chunk of VMW,and may well prove a good bet too, Because just as we need to eat,so companies need to store more info And