The Business Value of VMware

Virtualization through the Effective Use and Implementation of VMware

Today's IT organizations are constantly being asked to reduce costs and run more efficiently while having to manage multiple servers, keep end users happy, and administer an entire network on a daily basis. Virtualization is quickly becoming a key resource for companies who need to reign in administrative costs and reduce the growing sprawl commonly associated with server rooms. In addition, virtualization creates opportunities to leverage existing hardware for redundancy and maximize uptime for critical business systems.

When using a virtual infrastructure to consolidate physical systems in the data center, enterprises experience:

• Lower total cost of ownership of servers
• Higher server utilization
• Increased operational efficiency

One of the global leaders in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center is VMware, which is considered to be the leader in server and workstation virtualization because of its ability to reduce the total cost of ownership for servers, and its ability to reduce risks to the server environment. These two factors enable VMware to bring significant value to businesses that virtualize their server infrastructure by creating a robust and flexible server environment that can meet the various needs of any business.

VMware is able to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for servers by consolidating workloads. Today’s servers are powerful and underutilized: a typical server is running at 15% utilization for the processor and 30% utilization for the memory. VMware leverages these available resources to enable multiple operating systems to run on one physical server, thereby maximizing hardware investments. Instead of adding new servers to an environment, businesses can instead add new virtual servers on to their existing server hardware; reducing hardware and energy costs, as well as minimizing the physical space needed for their infrastructure.

Server virtualization impacts TCO through rapid provisioning and installation. Because multiple virtual servers run on a single physical server, adding an additional virtual server does not require provisioning. This removes the time necessary to scope, order and configure a new server. The full process of installing a new virtual server takes only a few hours, whereas the process of provisioning and installing a standard server can take weeks. This increased deployment velocity enables the server infrastructure to become flexible to the needs of the business.

Virtualization also impacts TCO through reduced server administration workload. In a standard server environment, an administrator has to check the logs of each server as well as check the status of the hardware. VMware reduces these tasks approximately 60%-90%, significantly reducing the administrative time necessary to properly support the server infrastructure. For businesses with many physical servers, the time saved can be significant.

VMware reduces risks to businesses in several ways:

• Faster recovery from a failure
• Reducing downtime
• Reducing costs associated with disaster recovery planning

For businesses that rely on the availability of their data, VMware is an essential tool for managing risk and ensuring that necessary resources are in place to support the needs of the business. Unsuccessful or lengthy recoveries are common in a standard disaster scenario, as equipment needs to be repaired and replaced, and the computer systems need to be reconfigured or reinstalled. A VMware infrastructure can speed recovery and enable long term survival because virtual servers can be backed up and restored onto another server. If the servers were physically damaged, virtual servers can be restored from backups on to any hardware of sufficient power and speed: no longer do backups have to be restored to identical hardware.

Disaster recovery planning and preparation can be costly. VMware can reduce the cost of disaster recovery planning because disaster recovery sites can be virtualized. This reduces the capital expense needed for disaster recovery sites because traditional disaster recovery solutions require that recovery hardware is identical to that of the production hardware. Server configuration in standard bare metal recoveries are time consuming and difficult, but hardware independence and the single-step file recovery offered by VMware infrastructures reduce the time to recovery for businesses in a disaster scenario. In addition, maintenance and provisioning that occurs in the disaster recovery site as a result of server refreshes can be done quicker and easier through the use of VMware.

VMware can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership for servers, and help reduce risk to business functions. Virtualization has significant value for businesses, and VMware delivers a substantial return on investment when leveraged properly in the environment. Contact All Covered for more information on how Virtualization can align to your business needs.