After the server virtualization project in Germany is complete, the roll-out will continue at the end of 2009 to SAP's offices in Asia and the United States.

Citrix group vice president and general manager for the XenServer product group, N. Louis Shipley, said the company is proud that SAP has selected its server virtualisation technology said.

"This project is an excellent example of how an end-to-end virtualisation solution can help companies optimise their IT infrastructure and reduce their costs," Shipley said.

At SAP, vice president of IT infrastructure services, Dietmar Bruder, said the company was impressed by the performance benefits of the Citrix server and application virtualisation solution.

"Our goal in implementing Citrix XenServer is to not only reduce the costs of our server infrastructure, but to also significantly lower its carbon footprint," Bruder said. "By leveraging Citrix virtualization technology we believe that in the future we will be able to cut SAP's carbon emissions by up to 600 tons annually in addition to the immediate savings on hardware."