The trend of virtualizing more of the enterprise data center–the database system as well as applications–got a boost Tuesday when VMware announced that its vFabric Data Director 2.0 now supports running Oracle 10g and 11g in virtual machines.

Data Director 2.0 allows a database or virtualization administrator to manage the database system through automated procedures and virtualization policies that resemble those already in use to manage other VMs in the data center.

IT managers may wish to virtualize the database system to make greater use of underutilized hardware. Database servers typically run at 8% to 10% of capacity. Putting more than one virtualized Oracle system on a host helps use more of the host’s resources, while guaranteeing its isolation. With two or even three Oracle databases running on one set of CPUs instead of three sets, the Oracle customer can reduce his Oracle license charges, based on CPU usage, by half or two-thirds.

In addition, application devel
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