Server Consolidation

If you're researching virtualization for the first time, the most compelling stats you see will be from the benefits of server consolidation. Seen as the standard first step for implementing a virtual environment, the business continuity, disaster recovery, and TCO reduction is remarkable. 

Physical servers today average 8-15% utilization, yet most of that same hardware consumes 60-90% of the same workload power even when idle. Server virtualization has allowed for reductions in energy consumption by as much as 80-90% and enabled consolidation ratios of 15:1 or more, increasing ulitization to as much as 85%!  See real savings with an ROI of over $3,000 per year for every server workload virtualized.

Whitepapers:
VMware Server Consolidation White Paper

Server Consolidation with Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Citrix Provisioning Server for Data Center 4.5

Demos:
Citrix XenServer Provisioning Demo