Recently, there has been a lot of noise about “OS sprawl” and “virtual server sprawl”. Just look at the links below.

What is “virtual server sprawl”? This is an issue related to virtual machines, but not Virtuozzo operating system-level virtualization. Let me explain.

When you consolidate servers using virtual machines, you end up with fewer physical servers. However, the number of virtual servers and OS environments increases. One reason is that virtualization makes provisioning a new OS instance so easy that administrators deploy more specifically configured OS environments. Instead of running 3 server roles in a single OS instance, they might now put each in a separate VM. In addition, there is a “host” OS instance. Even if it’s a proprietary Linux-based microkernel, it still needs to be managed.

Each OS instance needs to be configured, updated, patched and monitored independently, As a result, because of increased number of OS instances with virtual machines, you end up with higher management costs instead of lowering them.

With Virtuozzo, on the other hand, there is only one OS instance. Which means that today Virtuozzo OS-level virtualization, with template-based software management, is the only technology on the market that solves the “virtual server sprawl” or “OS sprawl” problem.

Links:
http://www.itjungle.com/tug/tug052506-story04.html
http://www.virtual-strategy.com/article/articleview/1226/1/2/
http://www.virtual-strategy.com/article/articleview/1330/1/2/
http://www.cassatt.com/sltn_vtrl_infrstc.htm
http://www.infotech.com/ITA/Research%20Centers/Network%20Management/Application%20Servers/Server%20Sprawl%20a%20Key%20Issue%20in%20Server%20Virtualization.aspx
http://www.iee.org/oncomms/sector/informationpro/magazine.cfm?issueID=107&articleID=B1BFF68E-BB99-0955-0A260CB31882B8E7