Scope
This chapter defines the Virtualization guidelines and standards for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Processing Environments. It notes where these intersect with CMS Cloud capabilities and services, and provides links. It does not cover Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI) or other desktop virtualization technologies.
Objectives
CMS’s overarching goal for virtualization is to facilitate the Agency’s transition from managing individual data center components to managing pools of computing resources. The following goals are common to all server virtualization implementations:
- Cost savings
- Consolidating applications to run on fewer physical servers
- Improving the efficiency of data center operations by increasing the utilization of computing resources
- Simplifying the management and maintenance of infrastructure
- Reducing “server sprawl,” which diminishes power requirements and server hardware footprint
- Increased scalability and elasticity capabilities
- Enhanced business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities