Potential future job posting:

Virtual Network Administrator

Responsibilities: A virtual network administrator oversees virtual computer networks to ensure that they function smoothly. A virtual network consists of a grouping of virtual machines that communicate with each other on a physical computer known as a virtual machine host server, on which computer files, programs, and other information are stored. A network may be as small as two or three virtual machines or as large as hundreds when paravirtualization is used.

Education: A virtual network administrator should have a strong background in math, sciences, and computer science, as well as experience working with virtual machines. Although a college degree in computer science, systems science, math, or engineering is not required to become a virtual network administrator, advancement is difficult without one. Administrators should be familiar with a variety of enterprise virtualization software packages, including Microsoft, VMware, and Sun. Because computer technology changes rapidly, administrators must constantly upgrade their knowledge base.

Working Conditions: Virtual network administrators, like other computer professionals, work in an office environment. Most put in forty hours or more of work per week. Much of the job is performed as part of an enterprise team, along with physical network administrators, and virtual machine managers. Configuring a virtual network can require long hours of work over a short period of time. Maintaining the virtual network can alternate between routine tasks and the more interesting but hectic work of troubleshooting and fixing virtual network problems. If a virtual network crashes, the administrator must work as quickly as possible, regardless of the hour, to solve the problem and restore the network to operation.

Similar Job description: Network Administrator Job Description

Hardware requirements

Hyper-V requires an x64-based processor, hardware-assisted virtualization, and hardware data execution protection. The following hardware has been tested extensively and is suitable for use with Hyper-V. Some of the hardware requires an update to the BIOS, as noted. This list does not imply support of the platform for Hyper-V by the respective vendors.

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With the new quad core cpus shipping in August, you can now upgrade from dual core to quad core, without any other upgrades.

AMD’s Barcelona will enable datacentres to double capacity without upgrading power supplies or cooling systems, the company has said. It also includes hardware support to speed virtualisation, providing a boost to server consolidation.(source)

This is a great potential for large data centers which have already deployed a large numbers of dual core systems. With no need to replace power supplies, each system could be upgraded with minimal downtime.