Virtualization and Open Source

When the cost of licensing software for use in a virtual server farm is considered, there is a strong case for the adoption of open source software in order to provide greater deployment flexibility and significantly reduced cost of operation. The first step in reducing cost and increasing flexibility and system resilience requires a deconstruction of the network services used by your organization. Once the elements are identified the next step is to assess the feasibility of using open source applications to deliver these services. Deconstruction and application analysis can yield significant on going operational cost savings when deployed across a virtual server farm. This begs the question whether Microsoft is simply adopting virtual server technology as a defensive mechanism. Without some acceptance of virtualization in their licensing model the cost differences between deployment of Microsoft and Open Source applications only get wider.