14 DAY TRIAL // A new expression is floating around the computer industry for sometime now and it started to stir some pretty strong waves. The said expression is "virtualization" and it refers to both a concept and a practical technology. Using this technology a single physical server can assume the role of many "virtual machines" prompting companies to adopt this approach in an attempt to reduce energy bills and the need to buy and deploy more and more servers. As one powerful server using some sort or another of virtualization technology can do the work of several smaller servers running different hardware and software platform, the cost savings can be pretty impressive.
As the virtualization market is just becoming accessible to the small and medium businesses and companies, Dell tries very hard to establish a strong foothold in that area and the hardware manufacturer is expected to launch next week a series of products that are specially optimized for use in a virtualization environment. Dell will launch a series of servers and storage products intended for the small and medium businesses and companies that are interested in the deployment of virtualization based IT solution. According to the news site informationweek, Glenn Keels, senior manager for commercial product marketing, said that Dell is preparing the launch of a new storage area network array which is optimized for the virtualization needs of smaller companies which are using one or more servers to cater for the needs of a maximum 1000 users. While the virtualization is already a key technology in big data centers from the most important companies, the small and medium businesses were reluctant to deploy such servers and equipments.
A storage area network or SAN for short is a group of connected disks which are commonly used to provide a centralized data storage option for one or more servers and Dell is looking forward to launching an entire line of products for this market segment. Michael Dell, the company's founder, is expected to present a number of other virtualization enabled hardware solutions early next week, like a 2U rack server which comes with already installed virtualization software. As for the last year Dell registered decreasing profits and a shrinking market share on the server market, the new direction of the company is leading toward reducing overall costs while at the same time simplifying the deployment and management of computers from the data center to the office worker's desktop.
As the company's situation is not very stable on either the server or the desktop or mobile computer markets right now, Michael Dell took control again of the manufacturing business and according to some market researchers the company made some important steps in its restructuring program as it reported a $733 million profit for the second fiscal quarter of the year. Most of the company's progress was made easier by some favorable market trends which included lower components cost as well as higher selling prices.