Reducing Complexity As the number of servers in a typical data center continues to grow, the different hardware and software configurations often multiply to near-unmanageable levels. This complexity makes change control, planning, operations and troubleshooting much more difficult when traditional architectures are employed. Using virtual technology to overcome these challenges can result in lower total cost of ownership (TCO) because the complexity at the physical layer is reduced.       Improved Scalability and Performance A virtual server implementation can deploy applications on systems that can be scaled more easily to match future workloads, or that provide better performance than the existing conventional servers. Strategic changes such as these can be implemented during the project rather than as a series of separate and piecemeal improvements.         Greater Use of High-Availability Technology As IT becomes more central to every business process, high levels of systems availability become ever more critical. A virtual infrastructure deployment is a good time to consider moving applications to new systems specifically engineered to enable the higher levels of uptime that are now necessary.         Better Support for New Business Applications Significant new business applications may require a substantial change to the IT infrastructure. For example, a new application may not be available for the current platforms in the data center, or may require fast connections to related applications that are currently physically separated. A virtual server implementation can relocate the servers and introduce technologies to create the base environment that will enable new business applications to be implemented.         Improved Security Centralized servers are easier to secure physically and logically than distributed servers. The economies of scale and simplified risk profile of a central location enable a higher level of security to be attained. It is also possible to deploy more-sophisticated intrusion and tamper detection systems at a central site and to staff them around the clock.