When times get tough, many organizations look for new ways to reduce costs while still being able to provide their customers with the products and services they need. This appears to be just such a time. Virtualization technology can most certainly be part of the solution. Let’s review how each of the layers could be of assistance. * Access virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix and Microsoft, can make it possible for administrative and operational cost reductions while still making needed applications available in a secure, reliable way. * Application virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix, Microsoft and many others, can make it possible for applications to be made available to staff members in a reliable way and even make it easier to update these applications without having to visit each and every laptop or desktop computer. * Processing virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Virtual Iron and many others can either allow many machines to work together to get tasks done more quickly to optimize staff member’s time or consolidate tasks onto a smaller number of physical machines. This approach can result in hardware, software, operational and adminisitrative cost reductions. * Network virtualization, such as that offered by Cisco, Juniper and others, can make it possible to reduce the costs of administrative and operating costs.