1. Technology Potential Assessment - virtualization Sarah Schleigh Presentation and Paper can be viewed here: http://www.slideshare.net/SchleighS

2. Virtualization Virtualization refers to technologies designed to provide a layer of abstraction between computer hardware systems and the software running on those systems. There are three main kinds of virtualization: Storage: adds a new layer of software and/or hardware between storage systems and servers, so that applications no longer need to know on which specific drives, partitions, or storage subsystems their data resides. Network: involves combining the available resources in a network by splitting up the available bandwidth into independent channels, each of which can be assigned (or re-assigned) to a particular server or device in real-time. Server: hides the physical nature of server resources, including the number and identity of individual servers, processors and operating systems, from the software running on them.

3. Leading Vendors VMware Microsoft Citrix Oracle IBM Novell Google Amazon Open Source: Red Hat Proxmox Parallels

4. Virtualization – development and history IBM created the first virtual machine (CP-40) – development began in 1964 and was completed in 1967 1999 – VMware went public with first major virtualization software and quickly became the leading supplier of virtualization products As of August 2009, approximately 85% of installed virtual machines in enterprises are VMware-based.

5. Costs Varies depending on number of applications or servers to be “virtualized” VMware provides a unique cost-per-application calculator on their website, which includes a price comparison to Microsoft and Citrix products http://www.vmware.com/technology/whyvmware/calculator/index.php Using standard parameters, I calculated the cost to be about $9,542 per application – this does not include future maintenance and support costs The key seller on virtualization technology is that it produces significant cost savings – including up to 80% reduction in energy costs on a go-forward basis

6. Virtualization & the retail apparel industry Virtualization technology can benefit any company provided they manage a high volume of data and have high network traffic – the retail apparel industry could benefit just as the banking, IT and medical industries have Many large retailers already use virtualization technology – but smaller and less IT savvy firms do not The retail apparel industry would be followers in this area of technology and would use it to increase operational efficiency – it would not have direct impact on their strategic goals

7. Burlington Coat Factory Over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico Known as a low-cost retailer Very little web presence – they do have a website but only allow you to buy a handful of products that they sell Operate two data centers – one was new in 2004 Since the completion of the new data center, Burlington has been interested in the area of virtualization and may already have made some progress towards adopting the technology

8. Recommendation I believe that Burlington Coat Factory should continue to look into virtualization technology and expand on their application of it Being the large company that they are, top vendors like VMware, Microsoft, Citrix, and Oracle would be willing to give them presentations of the possible applications Benefits to Burlington would be: reduced energy costs, reduced number of servers needed, disaster recovery/business continuity benefits, faster network speeds, and less downtime