Instructional Computing Facilities

Virtualisation and multi-core chips are two pieces of technology that are changing the way large computer centres work. Virtualisation is a idea of inserting a layer of middle-ware between an application and the underlying system to enable the application to run anywhere you want it to run, or even in several places at once. This enables applications to be moved from server to server to cope with downtime, and be replicated across multiple machines for times of peak usage (end-of-the month reporting, Monday morning peeks in email, enrolment week, etc) without tying up extra dedicated machines 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Multi-core chips are single pieces of silicon with two (or more) CPUs on them. Sharing much of the low-level infra-structure means you can pack more of them into a smaller space and they work together faster than they would on separate chips.