The IT landscape is being profoundly reshaped by virtualization. Instead of provisioning a single, physical server with enough spare capacity to support the peak load of a single application, IT managers can now dynamically match available processor power across multiple physical machines to meet the variable demands of application workloads.

But in addition to all its advantages, virtualization brings some unique challenges. The traditional approach to UPS power management is: if there is a loss of power, start shutting down the server. That has worked well for years, but virtualization challenges the concept of what a server is, or indeed, where in the world the server is located.