Government information technology managers are warming to server virtualization as a means to save money, reduce energy consumption, and simplify management of servers. New products and technologies are bringing virtualization to large and small data centers. Prior to virtualization, servers were dedicated to particular tasks. Every new application would require the acquisition of one or more new servers. In a large data center, this would ultimately lead to proliferation of servers, and the models and configurations of the hardware would change over time. There was no easy way to scale up applications which needed more hardware horsepower, short of migrating to a new server, and, more commonly, no easy way to take advantage of unused horsepower for servers that largely sit idle. Every new server demands more resources to keep it alive, including power, connectivity, backup, and management. As the number of servers grow, so does the need for more racks, more floor space and more a