1. Strategic Capstone Project: Controlling Software Costs in a Virtual Server Environment Kenneth D. Gauvreau MG6970: Summer Term 1 New England College June 23, 2008 Advisor: Christina Coidakis-Barss

2. June 23, 2008 2 Agenda General Knowledge of Virtual machines Costs of licenses Managing VMs and Licenses Conclusion Recommendation

3. June 23, 2008 3 General Knowledge of Virtual machines Servers high powered computer that is optimized for a specific task Virtual Servers software representation of a physical server a file that contains all the information stored in a physical server

4. June 23, 2008 4 General Knowledge of Virtual machines Physical and virtual hardware systems and resources (Microsoft, 2006)

5. June 23, 2008 5 General Knowledge of Virtual machines Multi-processor and multi-core Servers Greatly increases processing power and speed Benefits of Virtualization Better utilization of resources High Availability Reduced downtime Reduced hardware Costs

6. June 23, 2008 6 Costs of licenses Named-user basis Concurrent user CPU based pricing Multi-core pricing Linux – per physical server

7. June 23, 2008 7 Managing VMs and Licenses Replicating virtual machines Accurate tracking systems Open Source Software Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition Power off unneeded servers

8. June 23, 2008 8 Conclusion Virtualizing servers will not result in large software cost savings Software costs can be controlled

9. June 23, 2008 9 Recommendations Move towards Open Source Software Utilize Windows Enterprise Edition Run multiple applications on a single server Power off unneeded servers