But what about hardware failover "pooling"
The reason I consider having virtualised database servers is pretty simple in my (admittedly simple) mind.
If I have a fully populated blade centre (7-14 servers depending on who we're talking about), all in a single VM pool, and I then fill 33-50% capacity with Virtual machines dedicated to database server work, I can further fill out the other 50-66% VM pool with Application/web/file server VM's... Probably squeezing upward of 200% capacity out of the given rack space...
All this with the added benefit that if 1-3 (based on 7) of the blades died... everything would keep ticking along as the VM Manager automagically redistributed the VM's from the failing hardware...
If I'm way off mark... tell me... cause I'm constantly urging my DBA's, Server specialists and Infrastructure manager to try this out.
Nerd Icon - Cause in the end... if You ain't got that much brains... you may as well be management.