Increasing power demands and space limitations in the data center have begun to transition server virtualization technologies from luxuries to necessities. Server virtualization provides a path toward server consolidation that results in significant power and space savings, while also offering high availability and system portability. Today, vendors are building hardware and software platforms that can deliver virtualization solutions at near-native performance. To get the most out of virtualization technologies, keep in mind that the answer to every consolidation or availability problem may not be a single virtualization technology, but instead a combination of complementary solutions.