Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Information Technology
Resources Virtualization for
Sustainable Development
Malgorzata Pankowska
University of Economics in Katowice, Poland
ABSTRACT
Nowadays business organizations seem to be involved in the processes of sustainable development.
Therefore, not only economic indicators of performance are considered but also - the environmental
responsibility is equally important. The environmental responsibility covers social responsibility and
natural environment responsibility. The last one demands taking into account promotion of sustainable
use of renewable natural resources, reducing the emissions and wastages, and decrease of energy con-
sumption. The first part of the chapter includes presentation of benefits resulting from IT (Information
Technology) resources virtualization, Grid computing and cloud computing development. The second
part contains a model of IT governance for sustainability. The main important factors included in the
model concern IT strategy, business strategy, IT management, business agreements.
INTRODUCTION: GENERAL
PERSPECTIVE OF VIRTUALIZATION
machines, each one running a separate and pos-
sibly different instance of an operating system.
Today, virtualization can apply to a range of system
layers, including hardware, operating system and
high-level language virtual machines.
Virtual machine concept was in existence
since 1960 when it was first developed by IBM
Modern computer systems are now sufficiently
powerful to present users with the illusion that
one physical machine consists of multiple virtual
