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There’s been much talk about virtualized data centers in recent years, fueled in part by that fact that many IT vendors are touting technology that supports virtualization. Data center virtualization promises some significant benefits for organizations and also poses some risks.

In a virtualized data center, physical components such as storage systems and servers are provided as pools of logical computing capacity. A server can be logically divided into many virtual devices and can run multiple operating systems and applications as if they were running on physically separate machines.

Virtualization enables organizations to dynamically allocate resources to any operating system or application based on their current needs. With the greater efficiencies made possible through virtualization, businesses can realize benefits such as resource optimization, faster provisioning of IT resources and lower capital costs.

By contrast, the traditional approach to data centers often involves having IT components with either redundant or underused capacity, and organizations often have to cope with the expense of physically moving IT resources as needed.

“As users become more comfortable with virtualization, they are starting to apply virtualization on more than one server at a time,” says Tony Iams, vice president and senior analyst, system software research, at Ideas International Inc. “They are driving virtualization technology directly into IT infrastructure by extending the scope of its functionality from single servers to multiple systems throughout a data center or organization.”

One of the key reasons for an organization to consider moving to a virtual data center model is the desire to cut or stabilize IT infrastructure costs. Virtualized data centers allow organizations to use IT resources more efficiently because the resources are provided when and where they’re needed. Data center components such as servers, storage systems and applications are located in a shared pool, so capacity can be allocated as needed. Organizations can more effectively handle spikes and lulls in demand for capacity.

Another possible driver is the need to support emerging “extended enterprises,” in which access to information and applications is provided not only to internal users, but to outside customers, suppliers and other business partners. These users expect to gain access to information at any time and from nearly any location and type of device.

Yet another driver is the trend toward Web-enabled applications and the move by more organizations toward a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Many new applications under development use services to support various business functions. This creates a greater need for high availability and scalability of systems that can be dynamically provisioned.

Deploying a virtualized data center does pose some risks, such as security vulnerabilities. Securing a virtualized environment can be challenging because often, security products might not support a virtualized infrastructure. Vendors are beginning to address the need for stronger security in the virtualized environment.

Another consideration is that tools to manage virtualized environments are still relatively new and evolving. Also, some applications don’t run as well as others in a virtualized environment, so organizations need to take that into consideration when planning a move to virtualization.

Still, the trend toward virtualization will likely grow as organizations try to create more cost-effective and flexible IT environments. By shifting to a virtualized data center, organizations have the potential to more efficiently use computing resources, cut costs, ensure business continuity in the event of power outages and other events, and improve flexibility.

Other potential benefits include simpler deployment of systems in multiple geographic locations, lower costs from reduced management and administration of servers, improved IT service levels and more efficient software distribution.

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