Virtualization: Where It Belongs in your Business

How Can Virtualization Change the Face of your Business?

Traditionally, a server or a workstation would have only one operating system, such as XP or Vista for a workstations, and Windows 2003 for servers. Virtualization enables a computer to support more than one operating system, so your workstation would be able to have Vista and Windows 2000, or your server could have three copies of Windows 2003 server: one for your files, one for your SQL server, and a third for your financial applications.

The key driver behind this is resources. Today’s servers and workstations are powerful and under-utilized, with processor power to spare. A typical server is running at 15% utilization for the processor and 30% utilization for the memory. Virtualization takes advantage of these resources and creates an encapsulated platform to enable multiple operating systems that utilize the resources of the server or workstation hardware, thereby maximizing your hardware investments. Instead of adding new servers to your environment, you can instead add new virtual servers on to your existing server hardware; reducing hardware and energy costs, as well as minimizing the physical space needed for your infrastructure.

For small business, virtualization can supply you with additional flexibility that a standard environment cannot provide. Many businesses have legacy applications that will not run on current operating systems. Leaving a Windows NT, 98 or 2000 machine running on your environment can create significant security problems, AND cause an administrative nightmare, especially if the machine that it is on is as old as the operating system. Instead of supporting a legacy workstation, these legacy applications can be run virtually on another more robust workstation – secure and available on demand.

For servers, virtualization allows you to build your infrastructure without “server sprawl.” If your business needs another server due to growth or application needs, you can add a virtual server to an existing robust server –reducing the cost of implementation to only the operating system, licenses and labor because you do not have to purchase a $6,000 server.

Virtualization has several other benefits: it can support dissimilar operating systems (Linux, Unix, Solaris, etc.), and entire machines and servers can be backed up and restored, enabling portability and advanced disaster recovery. Virtual servers and workstations can be moved to other machines with very little difficulty in the event of hardware failure or upgrade: or to maximize the use of available resources. For those businesses with Disaster Recovery needs, virtualization can become a key tool to meet your availability goals.

Speak to your All Covered consultant to determine how virtualization can help with your business needs.

How All Covered Can Help

If this is an issue for your business, All Covered provides technology consulting and services for small businesses nationwide.

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