Virtualisation technology has become the basis for building managed data centres, it has been claimed.
Communications firm Cisco has launched an ethernet foundation designed to consolidate local area networks, managed storage area networks and high-performance computing networks.
Mario Mazzola, senior vice president of the company's server access and virtualisation business unit, commented: "The virtual machine has become the new atomic building block of the data centre, creating new challenges and opportunities with the potential to transform the computing environment and deliver significant benefits."
He added that the technology can be used to develop managed data centres into dynamic IT environments able to increase productivity and improve business agility.
Earlier this week, IT support services provider Nebulas Solutions claimed virtualisation technology can improve the efficiency of managed data centres by automatically handling peaks and troughs in server demand.
The group added that customers will realise immediate benefits after installing the hardware.