Businesses that require access to server resources on an as-needed basis can benefit tremendously from on-demand computing. An increasingly popular option, this model can help organizations save money on software licenses, hardware and many other costly aspects.
Weighing the Benefits
Leveraging an on-demand model can dramatically reduce licensing fees when the applications are deployed in a terminal services environment. Although software licenses usually come attached with major restrictions, sometimes they can be kept in a pool that allows users to pull from available copies only when the application is utilized, thus reducing the total amount of licenses required. Additionally, on-demand computing has the ability to reduce management overhead and power consumption to serve benefits to the both the organization and the environment. This is made possible because the applications can be incorporated once into a server farm and distributed via terminal service tools that present the resources to users. The benefits are obtained through fewer installations and deployments.
Future of the On-Demand Model
On-demand computing is sure to increase in popularity when considering that major vendors such as HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems are looking to deliver as many of these solutions as possible. The recent release of Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and the Hyper-V virtualization software are perfect examples of how these services are ascending into the mainstream. The structure of Windows encourages optimal and efficient resource usage across a network of servers, while virtualization helps to reduce carbon footprint by creating multiple virtual servers that run independently from within a single physical machine.