Virtualization technology is ubiquitous today. It has evolved rapidly into a solution that can deliver greater levels of efficiency, improved systems and business management, and increased application availability. Stratus and VMware are working together to provide virtualized solutions that deliver all of these benefits and more.

When it was first introduced, virtualization was all about consolidating the number of servers in an organization. In this “Smart IT” phase, IT managers embraced the technology to reduce server count and associated management demands and to make better use of

Now we are fully engaged in the “Smart Management” phase. The technology is maturing and the benefits are multiplying. Today virtualization is on the front lines of the green IT initiative. Server consolidation not only frees up space, it also drastically reduces energy consumption throughout the data center without throttling business growth. New applications deploy more quickly because it is so easy to do with virtualization.

We are now entering the next phase, the “Smart Business” phase, in which the most forward-thinking enterprises are planning to use the technology to implement advanced IT strategies like SaaS and cloud computing, and as a way to provide improved business-process availability, business continuity and disaster recovery.

Stratus and VMware have been working together to ensure that enterprise customers understand how they can use virtualization to achieve higher levels of availability. VMware Infrastructure 3 has features designed to reduce both planned and unplanned down time. Deploying VMware solutions on the Stratus ftServer platform enhances these features by providing assured levels of availability in excess of 99.999% for mission-critical applications.

Stratus’ fault-tolerant servers are designed from the ground up to maximize application uptime; they are the ideal platform for virtualization solutions. Enterprise customers today are exploiting the power of virtualization technology, assured that they will have the highest levels of availability and fault-tolerance for critical applications.

And business continuity? As organizations recognize the business critical nature of their IT infrastructure, they’re increasingly developing formal business continuity plans, with virtualization at their core.. In a recent Aberdeen Group report, “Are You Protected? Virtualization and Business Continuity” (2007), they conclude that approximately 50% of the 320 companies surveyed have virtualization deployments supporting business continuity strategies. A Computer Associates study surveyed 300 CIOs and top IT executives around the world; they found that 34% of respondents are currently using virtualization to support business continuity, while 45% plan to do so within 18 months.

In the words of IDC: “[we] believe the next wave of [virtualization] adoption will be centered on mitigating the problems and costs associated with system downtime. IDC estimates that server downtime cost organizations roughly $140 billion worldwide in lost worker productivity and revenue in 2007.”

With revenue like this at stake, virtualization will continue to grow as a vital weapon in the armory of availability and business continuity.